Friendship is "The indissoluble tie that binds, / In equal chains, two sister minds."
— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)
Date
1760, 1850
Metaphor
Friendship is "The indissoluble tie that binds, / In equal chains, two sister minds."
Metaphor in Context
Ah! haunting spirit, art thou there?
Forbidden in these walks to appear.
I thought, O love! thou would'st disdain
To mix with wisdom's black, staid train;
But when my curious searching look
A nice survey of nature took,
Well pleased, the matron set to show
Her mistress' work on earth below.
Then fruitless knowledge turn aside;
What other art remains untried
This load of anguish to remove,
And heal the cruel wounds of love?
To friendship's sacred force apply,
That source of tenderness and joy--
A joy no anxious fears profane--
A tenderness that feels no pain:
Friendships shall all these ills appease,
And give the tortured mourner ease.
The indissoluble tie that binds,
In equal chains, two sister minds;
Not such as servile interests choose,
From partial ends and sordid views;
Nor when the midnight banquet fires
The choice of wine-inflamed desires,
When the short fellowships proceed
From casual mirth and wicked deed,
Till the next morn estranges quite
The partners of one guilty night;
But such as judgment long has weighed,
And years of faithfulness have tried;
Whose tender mind is framed to share
The equal portion of my care;
Whose thoughts my happiness employs
Sincere, who triumphs in my joys;
With whom in raptures I may stray,
Through study's long and pathless way;
Obscurely blest in joys--alone--
To the excluded world unknown.
Forsook, the weak fantastic train
Of flattery, mirth, all false and vain;
On whose soft and gentle breast
My weary soul may take her rest,
While the still tender look and kind,
Fair springing from the spotless mind,
My perfected delights insure
To last immortal, free and pure.
Grant, heaven--if heaven means bliss for me--
Monimia such, and long may be!
Forbidden in these walks to appear.
I thought, O love! thou would'st disdain
To mix with wisdom's black, staid train;
But when my curious searching look
A nice survey of nature took,
Well pleased, the matron set to show
Her mistress' work on earth below.
Then fruitless knowledge turn aside;
What other art remains untried
This load of anguish to remove,
And heal the cruel wounds of love?
To friendship's sacred force apply,
That source of tenderness and joy--
A joy no anxious fears profane--
A tenderness that feels no pain:
Friendships shall all these ills appease,
And give the tortured mourner ease.
The indissoluble tie that binds,
In equal chains, two sister minds;
Not such as servile interests choose,
From partial ends and sordid views;
Nor when the midnight banquet fires
The choice of wine-inflamed desires,
When the short fellowships proceed
From casual mirth and wicked deed,
Till the next morn estranges quite
The partners of one guilty night;
But such as judgment long has weighed,
And years of faithfulness have tried;
Whose tender mind is framed to share
The equal portion of my care;
Whose thoughts my happiness employs
Sincere, who triumphs in my joys;
With whom in raptures I may stray,
Through study's long and pathless way;
Obscurely blest in joys--alone--
To the excluded world unknown.
Forsook, the weak fantastic train
Of flattery, mirth, all false and vain;
On whose soft and gentle breast
My weary soul may take her rest,
While the still tender look and kind,
Fair springing from the spotless mind,
My perfected delights insure
To last immortal, free and pure.
Grant, heaven--if heaven means bliss for me--
Monimia such, and long may be!
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "chains" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 2 entries in ESTC (1760).
See Poems on Several Occasions. By William Hamilton of Bangour, Esquire. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Gordon Bookseller in the Parliament Close, 1760). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton of Bangour, ed. James Paterson (Edinburgh: Thomas George Stevenson, 1850).
See Poems on Several Occasions. By William Hamilton of Bangour, Esquire. (Edinburgh: Printed for W. Gordon Bookseller in the Parliament Close, 1760). <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems and Songs of William Hamilton of Bangour, ed. James Paterson (Edinburgh: Thomas George Stevenson, 1850).
Date of Entry
07/14/2011
