 | Rhymes with reason and without |  |
XXV.
SUNDERED FRIENDSHIP.
'T is a sad lesson mortals have to learn,That hearts will change and turn to very stone,
And where the blessed light of friendship shone
The fell and deadly fires of hate may burn.
O, blessed Friendship! genius of our youth,
That, all unselfish, pledged itself in need,
I think on thee, and my sad heart doth bleed
To find thee fallen from thy primal truth.
O, bitter is it to pass coldly by
The friend of early boyhood's happy days,
Whose heart has grown estranged in selfish ways,
With unsaluting tongue and heedless eye!
But yet one thought occurs the woe to cease:
Perpetual silence is perpetual peace.
| Rhymes with reason and without | |