Oh, who can sing a happy song
When so much in the world is wrong?
“I can, I can!” sang a boy;
“I can sing a song of joy!”

And so he sang, and so I heard,
And all my grimness was deterred.
And then he stopped. I looked around
And not one singing boy I found.

Oh, joy in me that never dies,
In my imaginings it flies,
And though the world’s a full half wrong
My leaping life is ever strong!

Glad men there are who catch the day
And think, inside, “I can make way.”
For me and them I sing my light
And cower down the fiends of night.