Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A FRIEND, by JOHN CHALK CLARIS First Line: Look up, look up, that heavy blow Last Line: Shall lighten our declining years! Alternate Author Name(s): Brooke, Arthur Subject(s): Friendship | ||||||||
1. LOOK up, look up, that heavy brow Is clouded by no common grief, I've marked it lowering long, but now, Ere the heart's madness mock relief, Oh let thy sorrows take from me Such comfort as I took from thee Once in fate's worst extremity. 2. How can I bear to see that eye, Which shone to me a star of gladness Through the dim night of misery, Thus sunk, thus shrouded in its sadness! Look up to minetoo rarely bright With joy indeedbut if one light Of peace be there, 'tis thine by right. 3. And then thy heartnot long ago A fount of fresh and happiest thought, From which my own, however slow To pleasure, its sole pleasure caught, Seems now a lost and mournful thing, Cold, desolate, and withering, Like Winter without hope of Spring. 4. Oft has thy buoyant spirit lifted Mine o'er the perilous waves of pain, Which else a hopeless wreck had drifted; Should it not pay that debt again? Lean then on minethough weak it be, Great is the might of sympathy It will not sink in succouring thee. 5. Thou hast sought other ties, and found Some tenderer friendships, not more true; And didst not deem perhaps, while round Thy giddy sense young Passion threw The mists of its entrancing power, That there might come a chillier hour, And Love is still a summer flower! 6. Friendship and Love! both things divine; Love with the winged lightning's force Flashes and fades; through storm and shine Friendship its equable calm course Keeps like the sun;with fickle flame I have loved manybut there came A change in themthou wert the same. 7. Then let Love fail, or Fortune frown, Let the cold world despise or hate, Friend, we will go together down The deepening vale of life; one fate, Gloomy or bright, through hopes or fears, Blending alike our smiles and tears, Shall lighten our declining years! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YOU & I BELONG IN THIS KITCHEN by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA JASON THE REAL by TONY HOAGLAND NO RESURRECTION by ROBINSON JEFFERS CHAMBER MUSIC: 17 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 18 by JAMES JOYCE THE STONE TABLE by GALWAY KINNELL ALMSWOMAN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN TO AN ENEMY by MAXWELL BODENHEIM SONNET: 10. TO A FRIEND by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES A NIGHT THOUGHT; WRITTEN IN ILLNESS by JOHN CHALK CLARIS AN INVITATION TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTHDAY OF THE POET MOORE by JOHN CHALK CLARIS |
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