Friendship and Love

As feels the port for ships that come and go,
That tarry for a night, and in the day
Spread canvas and steer sailing far away
To other ports of which it may not know,
In unconjectured countries, even so
Man feels for man; nor long may friendship stay;
And little of its joy or its dismay
May any friend's heart to another show.

As feels the spirit of the melody
That, slumbering in a viol, a touch will start;
As feels the sun-thrilled sap within a tree, —
So man and woman feel, when heart in heart
They live, and know this miracle to be, —
In soul together, though to sense apart.