---
title: "Love in the Guise of Friendship"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1788"
location: "Mossgiel"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/love-in-the-guise-of-friendship/"
---

# Love in the Guise of Friendship

## Poem
Your friendship much can make me blest,  
O why that bliss destroy!  
Why urge the only, one request  
You know I will deny!

Your thought, if Love must harbour there,  
Conceal it in that thought;  
Nor cause me from my bosom tear  
The very friend I sought.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/love-in-the-guise-of-friendship/