FRIENDSHIP

A RUDDY drop of mainly blood

The surging sea outweighs;
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 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 has taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life,
Are through thy friendship fair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.