Songs of Joy by W.H. Davies
A Happiness Poem

This happiness poem, Song of Joy, is a lovely tribute to the idea of leavng your worries behind and not fearing what is to come. Be content with what you have and enjoy the pleasures that each day brings. That's the pathway to happiness.

Songs of Joy
by William Henry Davies

SING out, my soul, thy songs of joy;
Sing as a happy bird will sing
Beneath a rainbow's lovely arch
In the spring.

Think not of death in thy young days;
Why shouldst thou that grim tyrant fear?
And fear him not when thou art old,
And he is near.

Strive not for gold, for greedy fools
Measure themselves by poor men never;
Their standard still being richer men,
Makes them poor ever.

Train up thy mind to feel content,
What matters then how low thy store?
What we enjoy, and not possess,
Makes rich or poor.

Filled with sweet thought, then happy I
Take not my state from other's eyes;
What's in my mind -- not on my flesh
Or theirs -- I prize.

Sing, happy soul, thy songs of joy;
Such as a Brook sings in the wood,
That all night has been strengthened by
Heaven's purer flood.

William Henry Davies (1871 - 1940)

W. H. Davies was a Welsh poet and writer, one of the most popular during his time. He had an interesting view of life as he spent a significant part of it traveling around the United States and United Kingdom as a tramp and vagabond. The principal themes in Davies' work are the marvels of nature, observations about life's hardships, his own tramping adventures and the various characters that he met during his travels.

More Poems About Happiness by W.H. Davies

A Greeting by William Henry Davis

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