COMRADESHIP

FORBEARANCE

HAST thou named all the birds without a

gun;

Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk; At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse; Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust; And loved so well a high behavior

In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, Nobility more nobly to repay?

O be my friend, and teach me to be thine!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A

FRIENDSHIP

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 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

A

THE APOCRYPHA

Ecclesiasticus, ch. vi.

FAITHFUL friend is a strong defence;

And he that hath found him hath found a treasure.

There is nothing that can be taken in exchange for a faithful friend;

And his excellency is beyond price.

A faithful friend is a medicine of life;

And they that fear the Lord shall find him.

He that feareth the Lord directeth his friendship aright;

For as he is, so is his neighbor also.

Change not a friend for a thing indifferent; Neither a true brother for the gold of Ophir.

I

ETIENNE DE LA BOÈCE

SERVE you not, if you I follow,
Shadow-like, o'er hill and hollow,
And bend my fancy to your leading,
All too nimble for my treading.
When the pilgrimage is done,
And we've the landscape overrun,
I am bitter, vacant, thwarted,

And your heart is unsupported.
Vainly valiant, you have missed
The manhood that should yours resist,-
Its complement; but if I could,

In severe or cordial mood,

Lead you rightly to my altar,

Where the wisest muses falter,

And worship that world-warming spark
Which dazzles me in midnight dark,
Equalizing small and large,

While the soul it doth surcharge,
Till the poor is wealthy grown,
And the hermit never alone,—
The traveller and the road seem one
With the errand to be done;

That were a man's and lover's part,
That were Freedom's whitest chart.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

PHILOLÄUS TO DIOCLES

OW often at dusk, dear friend, when thou

Hart absent,

Sitting alone I wonder of what thou doest,
And dream, and wait of thee.

All the sweet noons and moons we have spent together;

All the glad interchange of laughter and love, And thoughts, so grave, or fanciful:

What can compare with these, or what surpass them?

All the unbroken faith and steadfast reliancenigh twenty years twining the roots of life far down;

And not a mistrustful hour between us-or moment of anger:

What can surpass all this, or what compare? Could riches or fame?

Or if the Thebans honor me for their lawgiver, Or thou, Diocles, in Olympic fields art victor beloved and crowned,

What are these things to that?

And still thou growest upon me, as a mountain,
Seen from another mountain-summit, rises
Clearer, more grand, more beautiful than ever;
And still within thine eyes, and ever plainer,
I see my own soul sleeping.

Edward Carpenter

F

FROM FAR

ROM far, from eve and morning,
And yon twelve-winded sky,

The stuff of life to knit me

Blew hither: here am I.

Now for a breath I tarry,
Nor yet disperse apart-

Take my hand quick and tell me,
What have you in your heart?

Speak now, and I will answer;
How shall I help you, say;
Ere to the wind's twelve quarters
I take my endless way?

A. E. Housman

DER GUTE KAMERAD

'CH hatt' einen Kameraden,

Ic

Einen bessern findst du nit.
Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,
Er ging an meiner Seite

In gleichem Schritt und Tritt.

Eine Kugel kam geflogen,
Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?
Ihn hat es weggerissen,
Er liegt mir vor den Füssen,
Als wär's ein Stück von mir.

Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad':

"Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben

Mein guter Kamerad!"

Ludwig Uhland

H

THYRSIS

OW changed is here each spot man makes or fills!

In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same; The village street its haunted mansion lacks, And from the sign is gone Sibylla's name, And from the roofs the twisted chimneystacks

Are ye too changed, ye hills?

See, 'tis no foot of unfamiliar men

To-night from Oxford up your pathway strays!

Here came I often, often, in old days,Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then.