Lines To Mr. --- Poem by Samuel Alfred Beadle

Friend, must we part and part forever?
The spell that bound our hearts is broke -
Did I say 'friend'? Excuse me, - brother;
I would the word I'd never spoke.


And brother, too, I should forget,
Since you the sacred tie would spurn
T' indulge the passions which have met
'Round our friendship's broken urn.


And yet it's hard and passing strange
That one brief hour should sever us;
And that a broken pledge should change
Hearts for a thing so odious.


But I had learned to trust you so -
Thought you so far above mankind,
So noble, and so true - when, lo!
Deception's wand strikes you blind.


Blind to all that we used to be,
Blind to all that we ought to be,
Blind still to yourself and me -
Blind even to vile treachery.


But should fortune e'er desert you,
Fate mark for you a rugged lot,
For what you ought to be I'll serve you,
And of your treachery think not.