English Poetry. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Friendship. Элла Уилкокс.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Элла Уилкокс)

Friendship

Dear friend, I pray thee, if thou wouldst be proving
   Thy strong regard for me,
Make me no vows. Lip-service is not loving;
   Let thy faith speak for thee.

Swear not to me that nothing can divide us-
   So little such oaths mean.
But when distrust and envy creep beside us
   Let them not come between.

Say not to me the depths of thy devotion
   Are deeper than the sea;
But watch, lest doubt or some unkind emotion
   Embitter them for me.

Vow not to love me ever and for ever,
   Words are such idle things;
But when we differ in opinions, never
   Hurt me by little stings.

I’m sick of words: they are so lightly spoken,
   And spoken, are but air.
I’d rather feel thy trust in me unbroken
   Than list thy words so fair.

If all the little proofs of trust are heeded,
   If thou art always kind,
No sacrifice, no promise will be needed
   To satisfy my mind.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s other poems:

1. The Phantom Ball
2. The Giddy Girl
3. The Awakening (I love the tropics, where sun and rain)
4. The Bed
5. The Plow of God

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

William Cowper (Уильям Купер) Friendship (“What virtue, or what mental grace”)

Samuel Johnson (Сэмюэл Джонсон) Friendship (“Friendship! peculiar boon of Heaven”)

Hartley Coleridge (Хартли Кольридж) Friendship (“WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills”)

Ralph Emerson (Ральф Эмерсон) Friendship (“A RUDDY drop of manly blood”)

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