Charles Mackay

Happy Love

Since the sweet knowledge I possess
   That she I love is mine,
All Nature throbs with happiness,
   And wears a face divine.
The woods seem greener than they were,
   The skies are brighter blue;
The stars shine clearer, and the air
   Lets finer sunlight through.
Until I loved I was a child,
   And sported on the sands;
But now the ocean opens out,
   With all its happy lands.

The circles of my sympathy
   Extend from earth to heaven:
I strove to pierce a mystery,
   And lo! the clue is given.
The woods, with all their boughs and leaves,
   Are preachers of delight,
And wandering clouds in summer eyes
   Are Edens to my sight.
My confidants and comforters
   Are river, hill, and grove,
And sun, and stars, and heaven's blue deeps,
   And all that live and move.

O friendly hills! O garrulous woods!
   O sympathizing air!
O many-voicid solitudes!
   I know my love is fair.
I know that she is fair and true,
   And that from her you've caught
The changeful glories ever new
   That robe you in my thought.
Grief, from the armor of my heart,
   Rolls off like rustling rain:
'T is life to love; but double life
   To be beloved again.