---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Osmond, Alfred
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 7
published: 1918-05
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Osmond, Alfred, "I Do Not Ask," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 7 (May 1918): 630.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2107unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2107unse
start_page: 630
end_page: 630
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-05)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2107unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# I Do Not Ask

<!-- page:630 -->

I   Do, Not Ask

                 I do not ask For stores of wealth
                    That my incessant toils may cease;
                 I rather crave the charms of health

                     And humble joys of love and peace.

                 I do not ask that grief and pain
                    Should veil their secrets from my mind;
                 I long to share the loss and gain

                   That bind me to my human kind.

                 I do not ask that wreaths of fame
                   Should twine around my throbbing brow;
                 But that my fair, untitled name
                   Be tarnished by no broken vow.

                 Ido not ask that fulsome praise
                  Should magnify my words and deeds;
                But may the lore of kindly ways
                  Reveal the virtues of my creeds.

                I    do not wish my rose of life
                     To feel the killing frosts of time;
                But while her fragrance still is rife
                     May I then hear life's vespers chime.

                And as the shadows, cold and gray,
                     Shut out the glory of the sun,
                I    hope to hear the angels say:
                     "Thy crown of glory now is won."
                                                   Alfred Osmond.
Brighton   Young University, Provo, Utah