- Break not an ancient friendship; keep it hale;
- Stir round its roots, that it be green of heart;
- Let not the spirit of its growth depart:
- It is a power to brave the strongest gale.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Friendship"
- Love must be first and last, the part, the whole;
- Must fill the human void as ocean fills
- Its broadest channels, ancient as the hills,
- And slightest shell o'er which its waters roll.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Love"
- Grief comes, a giantess, with strength to bind;
- She grips our hand and glares into our eyes;
- If we but kiss her mouth, she daily dies,
- Fades into air, and leaves a flower behind.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Grief"
- I am not sure that life, to any one,
- A fuller measure of contentment brings,
- With all its gifts, than in the draught which springs,
- From honest work, well plann'd, and bravely done.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Labor"
- Who hath one friend, of straight and loyal mind,
- But one, of all the million swarms of men,
- Is strong, beyond the energy of ten,
- Is rich, beyond the level of mankind.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "One Friend"
- A stream roars downward to a hidden sea
- That slumbers moonless, starless, without bound,
- Whence comes nor voice, nor form, nor any sound:
- The stream is Life, the sea--Eternity.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Life"
- The heart of Nature soothes the heart of man,
- If with his heart he looks into her eyes.
- A place of leaves, wide air, and sunny skies,
- Will soothe him more than even woman can.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN, "Nature"
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