Rosemary and Pansies/To a Friend

by Bertram Dobell

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