by Cindarella Gregory

To Frank

Friendship! Oh treasure, rich, inestimable,

Bright emanation from the courts of love.

To cheer the gloom of man's poor fallen state,

And render life supportable; Oh flame

Enkindled in the souls of the redeemed,

To burn forever and forever, where

Its light can ne'er be dimmed; nor blight, nor change

Plant [them] in its beam.

Friendship! Dear name

Oh how its mellow cadence strikes the strings,

Of the deep feelings of the inmost soul,

And stirs them up to music, and to heaven.

Friendship! How dear and hallowed is the sound

'Tis like the full rich burden of delight

That presses on the morning breeze,

The stream that gushes from the rocky mountain side,

To cheer the fainting traveler; the voice

Of sweet forgiveness to the weeper's heart.

The gentle touching of that syren power,

Sweet hope with all its promises and smiles.

Cindarella M. Gregory

c. 1849, in the memory book of Frances Ann Wood, Shimer College Collection Box 3 Folder 4.

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