“Friendship's an abstract of this noble flame,
'Tis love refined and purged from all its dross,
The next to angel's love, if not the same,
As strong as passion is, though not so gross:
It antedates a glad eternity
And is an heaven in epitome.”

—  Katherine Philips

st. 2
Poem LXIV: 'A Friend

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Anglo-Welsh poet and translator 1632–1664

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