Explore "Upon the Sand" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
All love that has not friendship for its base / Is like a mansion built upon the sand. / Though brave its walls as any in the land, / And its tall turrets lift their heads in grace; / Though skilful and accomplished artists trace / Most beautiful designs on every hand, / And gleaming statues in dim niches stand, / And fountains play in some flow'r-hidden place:
Yet, when from the frowning east a sudden gust / Of adverse fate is blown, or sad rains fall, / Day in, day out, against its yielding wall, / Lo! the fair structure crumbles to the dust. / Love, to endure life's sorrow and earth's woe, / Needs friendship's solid mason-work below.