Charles Swain’s poem ‘If thou hast lost a friend’ appeared in the London Journal in 1853 and has been transcribed by Stephen Basdeo.[1]
If thou has lost a friend,
By hard or hasty word,
Go—call him to thy heart again
Let Pride no more be heard.
Remind him of those happy days,
Too beautiful to last;
Ask if a word should cancel years
Of truth and friendship past?
Oh! If thou’st lost a friend,
By hard or hasty word,
Go—call him to thy heart again
Let Pride no more be heard.
Oh! Tell him from thy thought
The light of joy hath fled;
That in thy sad and silent breast,
Thy lonely heart seems dead;
That mount and vale—each path you trod
By morn or evening dim,—
Reproach you with their frowning gaze,
And ask your soul for him.
Then, if thou’st lost a friend,
By hard or hasty word,
Go—call him to thy heart again
Let Pride no more be heard.
[1] Charles Swain, ‘If thou hast lost a friend’, London Journal, 11 June 1853, 216.
Categories: 19th Century, Charles Swain, friendship, London Journal, poem, Poetry