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Henry David Thoreau (12 July 1817 – 6 May 1862 / Concord, Massachusetts)
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Friendship
I think awhile of Love, and while I think,
Love is to me a world,
Sole meat and sweetest drink,
And close connecting link
Tween heaven and earth.
I only know it is, not how or why,
My greatest happiness;
However hard I try,
Not if I were to die,
Can I explain.
I fain would ask my friend how it can be,
But when the time arrives,
Then Love is more lovely
Than anything to me,
And so I'm dumb.
For if the truth were known, Love cannot speak,
But only thinks and does;
Though surely out 'twill leak
Without the help of Greek,
Or any tongue.
A man may love the truth and practise it,
Beauty he may admire,
And goodness not omit,
As much as may befit
To reverence.
But only when these three together meet,
As they always incline,
And make one soul the seat,
And favorite retreat,
Of loveliness;
When under kindred shape, like loves and hates
And a kindred nature,
Proclaim us to be mates,
Exposed to equal fates
Eternally;
And each may other help, and service do,
Drawing Love's bands more tight,
Service he ne'er shall rue
While one and one make two,
And two are one;
In such case only doth man fully prove
Fully as man can do,
What power there is in Love
His inmost soul to move
Resistlessly.
______
Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side,
Withstand the winter's storm,
And spite of wind and tide,
Grow up the meadow's pride,
For both are strong
Above they barely touch, but undermined
Down to their deepest source,
Admiring you shall find
Their roots are intertwined
Insep'rably.
Read poems about / on: truth, happiness, pride, winter, nature, power, together, friend, beauty, heaven, wind, love, world
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The lilt the ire.
These things in us,
in man now lost desired.,
A man of graven line.
Etched in the soul.
This sevice to another,
makes O
it makes us whole.
Fewer come now more
than once before...iip
Jeannette Chung is a big believer in friendship. Very beautiful Mr. Thoreau, you are a star.10/10, would reckomend
Thoreau, always the idealist, set the highest of standards in all facets of life: relationships, work, morals, etc, ...society's shortcomings, as he saw them, made a recluse of him at Walden Pond.
This poem takes me to the walden pond of my tears. Very moving, as if of anything true, and ingenuously portrayed.
Love is synonymous with deep friendship. Also can't be spoken of only a feeling and a knowing.
What a nice try to define love! So intensely a relation poet tries to define. Actually the relation like friendship has been observed by very deep ray of light where individualism and our existence....according to poet Down to their deepest source, .....Their roots are intertwined / Insep'rably. Very smart the expression yet so contemporary.
I must say, it is written in a nice way. It trully express.
I love this poem, so great.
Thoreau was an idealist in matters of the heart and suffered great heartbreak after being rejected by a woman he loved, so he went to live in seclusion on Walden Pond. He loved this woman and wouldn't settle for anyone else. He lived his words.
Yeah! this is a wonderful poem. No matter how we try love is a mystery but attractive