This song is an adaptation of the poem, Disiderata, by Max Ehrmann.

Desiderata lyrics

Go placidly amid the noiseThe noise and the hasteRemember what peace there may beIn silence, in silence

As far as possible without surrenderBe on good terms with all persons

Speak your truth quietly and clearlyAnd listen to othersEven the dull and the ignorantThey too have their story

Avoid loud and aggressive personsThey are vexations to the spirit

If you compare yourself with othersYou may become vain and bitterFor always there will be greaterAnd lesser persons than yourself

Enjoy your achievementsAs well as your plansKeep interested in your own careerHowever low or humbleIt is a real possessionIn the changing fortunes of time

Exercise caution in your business affairsFor the world is full of trickeryBut let this not blind youBlind you to what virtue there is

Many persons strive for high idealsAnd everywhere life is full of heroismBe yourself, be yourselfEspecially do not feign affection

Neither be cynical about loveFor in the face of all aridityAnd disenchantmentIt is as perennial as the grass

Take kindly the counsel of the yearsGracefully surrender the things of youth

Nurture strength of spiritTo shield you in sudden misfortuneBut do not distress yourselfWith dark imaginings

Many fears are born of fatigueOf fatigue and lonelinessBeyond a wholesome disciplineBe gentle with yourself

You are a child of the universeNo less than the trees and the starsYou have a right to be hereWhether or not it is clear to youThe universe is unfolding as it should

Therefore be at peace with GodWhatever you conceive Him to beWhatever your labors and aspirationsIn the noisy confusion of lifeKeep peace with your soul

With its sham, drudgery, and broken dreamsIt is still a beautiful world

Be cheerfulBe happyBe always cheerfulBe always happy

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This country ballad turns William Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem into a country ballad.

Daffodils lyrics

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o’er vales and hillsWhen all at once I saw a crowdA host, of golden daffodilsBeside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky wayThey stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bayTen thousand saw I at a glanceTossing their heads in sprightly dance

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in gleeA poet could not but be gayIn such a jocund companyI gazed—and gazed—but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive moodThey flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitudeAnd then my heart with pleasure fillsAnd dances with the daffodils

And then my heart with pleasure fillsAnd dances with the daffodils

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William Shakespeare’s sonnet, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? reimagined as a country ballad. I hope you enjoy it.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? lyrics

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperateRough winds do shake the darling buds of MayAnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shinesAnd often is his gold complexion dimmedAnd every fair from fair sometime declinesBy chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed

But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shadeWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest

So long as men can breathe or eyes can seeSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee

So long as men can breathe or eyes can seeSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee

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