My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall;
For why? my mind doth serve for all …
We’ve followed convention in attributing this poem to Dyer, although some scholars believe that the Earl of Oxford wrote it. ‘My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is’ expresses the sentiment that one’s own mind contains a whole world, and, indeed more than the world, since the only limit on it is the limit of our own imagination, or what we are able to conceive of.
