The Health (After absence — To a Friend)

An absent Friend, long absent from my Arms,
(Long from my Breast, since I felt Love's alarms.
Return'd — last Night, the Prodigal return'd,
With gen'rous, kind, continu'd Friendship burn'd,
And, in the closest folds, his ruin'd Sylvius Mourn'd.
Both Mourn'd, at once in Pleasure and in pain,
Both Mourn'd that loss, which both esteem'd, as gain.
Strange force of Friendship! Vain and indiscreet,
We Mourn our absence most, when now we meet.
Thus, when the Mariner has reacht the shore,
Tho' he deplores not, till the Tempest's o'er,
Yet then he feels the late-past Anguish more.
Then, when safe landed on the welcome Coast,
Then, he perceives his vanisht dangers most.
Srait, from my Friend a Flood of Questions Springs,
Half Answers made, I ask ten thousand things,
For meeting Friends —
Grow highly ravish'd, as Triumphant Kings.
Our hasty Joys such num'rous Queries Start,
We seem'd not meeting then, but then to part.
We stood, embrac'd, then walk'd, and chang'd the ground,
We lodg'd — the Lov'd Amasia's Health flew round,
Amasia's Health the Golden Goblets Crown'd.