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 mine—too rarely bright With joy indeed—but if one light Of peace be there, 'tis thine by right. 3. And then thy heart—not 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 mine—though 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 @3loved@1 many—but there came A change in them—thou 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...THE BATTLEFIELD by EMILY DICKINSON EPITAPH FOR SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, AT ST. PAUL'S WITHOUT A MONUMENT ... by EDWARD HERBERT PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 13. AL-BARI by EDWIN ARNOLD ON THE BEACH AT EVENING by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 27 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |