Friendship is one of the highlights of being human. Whether you value your friends’ constant care for you, their interest in your life and passions, or their trustworthiness, good friends more than deserve to be honored with poetry.
So, let’s celebrate your friends and explore some poems that articulate the often complex feelings that we have for those nearest and dearest to us: our friends.
‘To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship’ by Katherine Philips describes the relationship that existed between the poet and her friend Anne Owens.
I did not live until this time
Crowned my felicity,
When I could say without a crime,
I am not thine, but thee.
‘A Time to Talk’ by Robert Frost is a poem abut the importance of friendship. Nothing should get in the way of greeting a friend one truly cares about.
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
‘Summer Friends’ by Mary Lamb is a sixteen line poem that speaks to the invulnerable relationship between friends in good times and bad.
The Swallow is a summer bird;
He in our chimneys, when‘the weather is fine and warm, may then be heard
Chirping his notes for weeks together.
‘Orinda to Lucasia’ by Katherine Philips describes the importance and intensity of the relationship she holds with her close friend, Anne Owens.
OBSERVE the weary birds ere night be done,
How they would fain call up the tardy sun,
With feathers hung with dew,
And trembling voices too.
Thigh-deep in sedge and marigolds,
a neighbour laid his shadow
on the stream, vouching
‘On the Death of Anne Brontë’ by Charlotte Brontë describes the poet’s grief over her beloved sister’s death and her relief that Anne’s suffering has ended.
There's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave;
I 've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.
‘Provide, Provide’ by Robert Frost is a powerful depiction of the inevitability of death. Frost spends time talking about the ways one can face the fact that they aren’t going to live forever.
The witch that came (the withered hag)
To wash the steps with pail and rag,
Was once the beauty Abishag,
Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay—
Stay till the good old year,
So long companion of our way,
Shakes hands, and leaves us here.
Now that we're almost settled in our house
I'll name the friends that cannot sup with us
Beside a fire of turf in th' ancient tower,
Edgar Guest’s ‘A Friend’s Greeting’ is a heart-touching poem about a speaker’s gratitude for his dearest friend. This poem is written in the form of a greeting in verse.
I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me;
I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be;
I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day
As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way.
Explore ‘Death of a Young Woman,’ where Clarke depicts how a loved one’s death lets a person free from their inward, endless suffering.
‘My Kate’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a sorrowful elegy dedicated to a morally righteous and important woman who has passed away.
‘At Pegasus’ by Terrance Hayes is a powerful poem about identity that uses a youthful memory and a contemporary experience to speak about life.
‘To a Dead Friend’ by Langston Hughes is a depressing poem about the ways death can permanently alter one’s ability to see or feel joy.
‘At First’ by Amanda Gorman is a poem about language in the COVID-19 pandemic. The poem uses text messages to speak about how the pandemic changed everyone.
‘There’s No Power Like Home’ by Amanda Gorman is a beautiful testament to the difficulties associated with COVID-19 restrictions.
‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ by Ogden Nash is a ballad about a young girl, Belinda, and her four pets, one of whom is a cowardly dragon named Custard.
‘The Eternal Goodness’ by John Greenleaf Whittier is a relatively unknown 19th-century poem that explores religious themes and the various ways that God’s love comes through.
In ‘3 November 1984,’ Indian-English poet Sujata Bhatt shows how history plays a vital role in the process of writing poetry, and their interconnectedness.
‘A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map’ by Stephen Spender explores the Spanish Civil War through the lyrical depiction of one man’s death. It is marked by a stopwatch, the olive trees, and the continued conflict around him.
In ‘A Subaltern’ the speaker catches a glimpse of the innocence and hope he thought the war had erased in a conversation with a junior military officer.
After losing his dear friend in World War I, William Butler Yeats wrote this particular poem, ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death. Robert Gregory, an Irish Airman, was accidentally shot down by an Italian Aviator, who happened to be a dear friend of Yeats.
‘Buckingham Palace’ is one of the clever poems that A.A. Milne wrote featuring his famous characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh books. It depicts Alice and Christopher’s trip to see the changing of the guard.
‘Darling’ by Jackie Kay describes a woman’s death on a beautiful summer day and her close friend’s reaction. It was inspired by a personal loss the poet experienced.
‘Dialogue of Friendship Multiply’d’ by Katherine Philips contains the dialogue between two women, one of whom wishes to begin a friendship with the other.
‘Easter Monday (In Memoriam E.T.)’ is a fascinating exploration of grief and friendship against the backdrop of the First World War.
‘Elegy Before Death’ is a poem about the physical and spiritual impact of a loss and how it can and cannot change one’s world.