WHAT will you give for Friendship? View it near: The warp so firm, the woof so beautiful -- The very stuff of life! 'T will keep you warm When silken Love, that takes the vagrant eye With its smooth touch and tints of changing light, Wears thin against the freezing winds of fate. See, this is not of cold, mechanic weave With showy dyes of aniline device, But like an ancient, human tapestry, The concord of robust and gentle tones, Where threads of Joy are softened to content, And even Sorrow's add a note of peace. What will you give for Friendship? Yes, 'tis dear, But how well worth the cost! Bid high, pay gladly. Sure of its value, sure of your own need, Take every risk. Three comradeships there are: One that makes man more brother than his twin, One that can sister woman in distress, And one that both may share, the costliest Because the rarest. This how few may know -- Its warmth, its beauty, its supernal charm! To find it needs such instinct, such high thought, Deep sacrifice, sweet ardor, holy faith. And, then, the price! -- dear treasures of the soul; Pearls of hid tears; and jeweled hours lost To absence and forever unretrieved; And, too, perchance, as penalty for joy, Suspicion, the chief food of idle minds, Invoking censure, by a cruel code As old as envy, upon fancied faults, -- The vulgar making statutes for the pure, As though the crow could teach the lark to sing! What will you give for Friendship ere it pass? If you have timid blood, plod on through life Content with little, colder than your grave. If you be brave and loyal, here's my grasp, And we'll find heaven 'spite of foe and friend. |