Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

John Addington Symonds (1840–1893)

[Friends]

GIVE freely to the friend thou hast;

Unto thyself thou givest:

On barren soil thou canst not cast,

For by his life thou livest.

Nay, this alone doth trouble me—

That I should still be giving

Through him unto myself, when he

Is love within me living.

I fain would give to him alone,

Nor let him guess the giver;

Like dews that drop on hills unknown,

To feed a lordly river.