Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of FriendshipA Temple to Friendship
Thomas Moore (17791852)“A
“I ’ll build in this garden; the thought is divine.”
So the temple was built, and she now only wanted
An image of Friendship, to place on the shrine.
An image, the fairest his art could invent;
But so cold, and so dull, that the youthful adorer
Saw plainly this was not the Friendship she meant.
An image whose looks are so joyless and dim;
But you little god upon roses reclining,
We ’ll make, if you please, sir, a Friendship of him.”
She joyfully flew to her home in the grove.
“Farewell,” said the sculptor, “you ’re not the first maiden
Who came but for Friendship, and took away Love!”