Poems have been written about nearly every topic under the sun, and next to love and death, friendship poems are among the most commonly read, written, and shared in the world. Unfortunately, a beautiful poem written in friendship can often result in a misunderstanding when it sounds very much like a love poem.
Regardless of the confusion, some of the world's greatest poets have penned friendship poems for any number of their closest acquaintances, professional colleagues or distant relatives. When a poet feels close to someone, a natural response is to write a poem.
What Makes A Friendship Poem Special?
This is where confusion can often arise when describing the difference between a friendship poem and a love poem. Love poetry is most often the result of an extreme, powerful emotion, a written expression of the almost intangible sensation of love. On the other hand, friendship poems are more subdued, relying on personal references and expressions of caring. The difference is similar to what kind of gift you would buy for a girlfriend or boyfriend as opposed to a roommate or childhood buddy. One would hope they are not the same gift.
Great Friendship Poems
Great poets in history have made a habit of penning verses for each other in response to any number of personal relationships. It was their way of paying respect to their closest friends. If someone might buy a gift for a friend today, Shakespeare would have written that person a sonnet. Which is something Shakespeare did do on occasion. Sonnet 104, for example, speaks to a close friend with whom he treasures the three summers they spent together. The poem reads similar to many of his love sonnets, and in fact has been debated for some time as many believe it is in fact a love poem.
Friendship Poems as Metaphor
Other poets used friendship as a metaphor, comparing the closeness of a friend to any number of other experiences. For example, in Emily Dickinson's "The Soul Unto Itself" she wrote:
The Soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend -
Or the most agonizing Spy -
An Enemy - could send -
Secure against its own -
No treason it can fear -
Itself - its Sovereign - of itself
The Soul should stand in Awe -
She is not writing about a close friend, but her own soul and the numerous masks it takes on. However, the same could be said about a close friend who is never quite as disarmed as we would like to believe.
Defining Friendship With a Poem
But then there are those poets who wrote friendship poems solely ruminating on the nature of friendship. Ralph Waldo Emerson can be attributed for dozens of memorable quotes about what it means to be a friend and wrote numerous friendship poems in turn. One of his most famous was the short but poignant "Glory of Friendship" which states:
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand,
nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship;
it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when
he discovers that someone else believes in him and is
willing to trust him.
He went on to write many other poems, such as the simply titled "Friendship" and the numerous letters he wrote to Thomas Carlyle, detailing his deep thoughts on the subject and the source for many of his works.
Friendship Poems Today
Poetry today does not ruminate nearly as much on friendship as it does on love, and the closeness of any two friends is admittedly not as defined as it once was. However, if you have ever felt the urge or desire to tell your friend what their friendship means to you, you have an inkling of what the great poets such as Emerson experienced when they sat down to pen their poems, and what better way to understand friendship poems than that.
