A ruddy drop of manly blood <br />The surging sea outweighs, <br />The world uncertain comes and goes; <br />The lover rooted stays. <br />I fancied he was fled,- <br />And, after many a year, <br />Glowed unexhausted kindliness, <br />Like daily sunrise there. <br />My careful heart was free again, <br />O friend, my bosom said, <br />Through thee alone the sky is arched, <br />Through thee the rose is red; <br />All things through thee take nobler form, <br />And look beyond the earth, <br />The mill-round of our fate appears <br />A sun-path in thy worth. <br />Me too thy nobleness had taught <br />To master my despair; <br />The fountains of my hidden life <br />Are through thy friendship fair.<br /><br />Ralph Waldo Emerson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/friendship-297/
