Poem

Friendship 

A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
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 alone the sky is arched,
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 my 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
          From the book, The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Twelve Volumes, Volume II, Copyright 1865, leatherbound