FRIENDSHIP

by: Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)

HEN we were idlers with the loitering rills,

The need of human love we little noted:

Our love was nature; and the peace that floated

On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills,

To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:

One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,

That, wisely doting, ask'd not why it doted,

And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills.

But now I find how dear thou wert to me;

That man is more than half of nature's treasure,

Of that fair beauty which no eye can see,

Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;

And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure,

The hills sleep on in their eternity.

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