Page:Carroll - Phantasmagoria and other poems (1869).djvu/70



[To a friend at Radley College, who had complained 'that I was glad enough to see him when he came, but did not seem to miss him if he stayed away.']

cannot pleasures, while they last, Be actual, unless, when past, They leave us shuddering and aghast, With anguish smarting? And cannot friends be fond and fast, And yet bear parting?

And must I then, at Friendship's call, Calmly resign the little all (Trifling, I grant, it is, and small) I have of gladness, And lend my being to the thrall Of gloom and sadness?