Poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship

A RUDDY drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs,
The world uncertain comes and goes;
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,--
And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness,
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again,
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red;
All things through thee take nobler form,
And look beyond the earth,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness had taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair. 

1. To Ellen at the South
2. Hamatreya
3. Woodnotes I
4. The Rhodora
5. Guy

Ella Wilcox Friendship ("Dear friend, I pray thee, if thou wouldst be proving")

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