ON A REAL INSTANCE OF DISINTERESTED FRIENDSHIP Rebekah Carmichael (later Hay) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T104666 Carmichael, Miss (Rebekah) (fl. 1790-1806). Poems. Edinburgh Peter Hill 1790 pp. 54-56. 92p.

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ON A REAL INSTANCE OF DISINTERESTED FRIENDSHIP Ill skill'd my youthful hand to guide The just descriptive pen ; Else with a poet's noblest pride I'd draw the best of men . Ye unseen beings that attend In realms of purest light , Assist to paint the orphan's friend , The good , the matchless W——te . And listen while I tell the tale , More like a fancied dream : One night , as languid , faint , and pale , I view'd bright Luna's beam , I rov'd by yon fair building's side , That strikes the wond'ring sight , Then tow'ring high in airy pride Dim through the gloom of night , My mind o'erclouded was with woe , As dismal as the scene ; Shades o'er my fate did thick'ning grow , No ray could intervene : But he was nigh , the friend of all Beheld with tender care ; And still awake to pity's call , My sorrows wish'd to share . He spoke , ye heavens ! the pleasing sound Still vibrates in my ear ; Words which might heal the deepest wound , And dissipate each fear . But , oh ! it was not words alone ; For bounteous deeds did prove , A goodness to the world unknown His manly breast did move . On earth each broken heart elate Beholds him with delight ; And heaven shall open every gate . To welcome matchless W——te !