Health to my friend, and many a cheerful day! <br />Around his seat may peaceful shades abide! <br />Smooth flow the minutes, fraught with smiles, away, <br />And, till they crown our union, gently glide! <br /> <br />Ah me! too swiftly fleets our vernal bloom! <br />Lost to our wonted friendship, lost to joy! <br />Soon may thy breast the cordial wish resume, <br />Ere wintry doubt its tender warmth destroy! <br /> <br />Say, were it ours, by Fortune's wild command, <br />By chance to meet beneath the Torrid Zone, <br />Wouldst thou reject thy Damon's plighted hand? <br />Wouldst thou with scorn thy once loved friend disown? <br /> <br />Life is that stranger land, that alien clime; <br />Shall kindred souls forego their social claim? <br />Launch'd in the vast abyss of space and time, <br />Shall dark suspicion quench the generous flame? <br /> <br />Myriads of souls, that knew one parent mould, <br />See sadly sever'd by the laws of Chance! <br />Myriads, in Time's perennial list enroll'd, <br />Forbid by Fate to change one transient glance! <br /> <br />But we have met-where ills of every form, <br />Where passions rage, and hurricanes descend; <br />Say, shall we nurse the rage, assist the storm, <br />And guide them to the bosom-of a friend? <br /> <br />Yes, we have met-through rapine, fraud, and wrong: <br />Might our joint aid the paths of peace explore! <br />Why leave thy friend amid the boisterous throng, <br />Ere death divide us, and we part no more? <br /> <br />For, oh! pale Sickness warns thy friend away; <br />For me no more the vernal roses bloom! <br />I see stern Fate his ebon wand display, <br />And point the wither'd regions of the tomb. <br /> <br />Then the keen anguish from thine eye shall start, <br />Sad as thou followest my untimely bier; <br />'Fool that I was-if friends so soon must part, <br />To let suspicion intermix a fear.'<br /><br />William Shenstone<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/elegy-xiii-to-a-friend-on-some-slight-occasion-estranged-from-him/
