Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 198 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 198: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains running verse (poetry) rather than prose narrative. Numbered 180, it presents a poem about the ideal qualities of friendship, emphasizing sincerity, emotional reciprocity, and loyalty through both joy and sorrow. The speaker rejects false flattery and fair-weather friends, instead valuing those who remain present during grief and maintain honest, unguarded confidence. The final stanza uses mirror imagery to suggest the friend should reflect oneself truthfully without distortion. The archaic language and sentimental subject matter are characteristic of Victorian-era popular literature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
180 A Let Friendship the stream, as it flows calm and clear, Receive unpolluted for me ; Or if tenderness mingle a sigh or a tear, The draught still the sweeter will be. But let me reject the too-high flavoured bowl Affectation or Flattery compose, From Sincerity’s urn thus transparent shall roll The cordial of peace and repose. Oh! give me the friend, from whose warm, faithful breast The sigh breathes responsive to mine, Where my cares may obtain the soft pillow of rest, And my sorrows may love to recline. Not the friend who my hours of pleasure will share, But abide not the season of grief ; Who flies from the brow that is darkened by care, And the silence that looks for relief. $ Not the friend who, suspicious of change or of guile, Would shrink from a confidence free ; Nor him who with fondness complacent can smile On the eye that looks coldly on me. As the mirror that, just to each blemish or grace, To myself will my image reflect, ) But to none but myself will that image retrace, Nor picture one absent defect. Comichooksseom