 | Miscellanies in Prose and Verse |  |
90
An ODE ON FRIENDSHIP.
I
Friendship, peculiar gift of heav'n,The noble mind's delight and pride,
To Men and Angels only giv'n,
To all the lower world deny'd:
II
While Love, unknown among the blest,Parent of rage and hot desires,
The human and the savage breast
Inflames alike with equal fires.
91
III
With bright, but oft destructive gleam,Alike o'er all his lightnings fly,
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.
IV
Thy gentle flows of guiltless joysOn fools and villains ne'er descend;
In vain for thee the Monarch sighs,
And hugs a flatt'rer for a friend.
V
When virtues kindred virtues meet,And sister-souls together join,
Thy pleasures permanent as great,
Are all transporting, all divine.
VI
O! Shall thy flames then cease to glowWhen souls to happier climes remove?
What rais'd our virtue here below
Shall aid our happiness above.
| Miscellanies in Prose and Verse | |