Rosemary and Pansies/To a Friend
TO A FRIEND
The tie of kinship oft we find Doth not in love or friendship bind; Brothers and sisters, to their shame, Are oft related but in name; Husband and wife how oft we see In bitterest animosity; Mothers and children even, bound By no firm ties of love are found.
But there are ties no kinship makes, Nor force nor interest ever breaks, That o'er the heart bear changeless sway. And know not rupture nor decay; Time's best and purest gift to man, Wherein no base alloy we scan, The perfect spiritual union That binds two souls in blest communion.
Such, friend! our union; it began Because in the eternal plan It was decreed your soul and mine Should in a league of love combine, So that such perfect unison Exists we are not two but one; Or like two harps—touch one, you make The spirit of its fellow wake.
Love 'twixt the sexes scarce may be From all attaint of passion free; But ours is love without desire, A pure and unconsuming fire; With no base element's alloy No surfeit can its power destroy, Which lasts, with full assurance crowned, Like light and heat together bound.
1867