Charles Mackay

The True Companion

Give me the man, however old and staid,
Or worn with sorrow and perplexity,
Who, when he walks in sunshine or in shade,
By woodland bowers, or bare beach of the sea,
O'er hill-top, or in valleys green with me,
Throws off his age, and gambols like a child,
And finds a boyish pleasure in the wild,
Rejuvenescent on the flowery lea:
Him shall the years press lightly as he goes;
The kindly wisdom gathered in the fields
Shall be his antidote to worldly woes;
And the o'erflowing joy that nature yields
To her true lovers, shall his heart enclose,
And blunt the shafts of care like iron shields.