Theme · 54 poems

Friendship Poems

Poems for the people who stayed — old friends, found families, and auld acquaintance never forgot.

Love poems outnumber friendship poems a hundred to one, which says more about poets than about friendship. The ones that exist tend to be keepers: Burns's 'Auld Lang Syne' is sung by millions every December 31st, most of whom never realize they're performing a friendship poem about old times and a cup of kindness. Dickinson, Yeats, and Whitman all paid their debts to friends in verse.

Friendship poems get used at the unglamorous, essential moments — farewells, toasts, thank-yous, the card that says 'twenty years, somehow.' The good ones work like the friendships themselves: less declaration, more accumulated evidence.

LengthForm

Auld Lang Syne (Wikisource)

Robert Burns · 1788

Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind ?Should old acquaintance be forgot,

25 lines · ballad

Roses Are Red (A Toast to My Worst Best Friend)

The QuillOak Editors

Roses are red, your advice is the worst,you laugh at my downfalls (and always laugh first);but when it all crumbled, you showed up by nine

4 lines · roses are red

My Season's furthest Flower

Emily Dickinson

My Season's furthest Flower —I tenderer commendBecause I found Her Kinsmanless,

4 lines · lyric

Nature assigns the Sun

Emily Dickinson

Nature assigns the Sun —That — is Astronomy —Nature cannot enact a Friend —

4 lines · lyric

F-R-I-E-N-D (an Acrostic)

The QuillOak Editors

First to arrive when everything falls,Refusing to say "I told you so,"Insisting your worst jokes are funny,

6 lines · acrostic

The Butterfly's Assumption Gown

Emily Dickinson

The Butterfly's Assumption GownIn Chrysoprase Apartments hungThis afternoon put on —

6 lines · lyric

To Friends At Home

Robert Louis Stevenson

TO friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lostThe gracious old, the lovely young, to MayThe fair, December the beloved,

6 lines · lyric

Cancelled Stanza

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Gather, O gather,Foeman and friend in love and peace!Waves sleep together

7 lines · lyric

I Dream’d in a Dream

Walt Whitman

I DREAM’D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;

7 lines · lyric

Doctor's Orders, Friend's Addendum

The QuillOak Editors

Doctor's orders, friend's addendum:soup, and sleep, and silly shows;let the world spin on without you —

8 lines · lyric

Get Well Soon (Selfish Reasons)

The QuillOak Editors

Get better soon — for your sake, yes,but mainly, friend, for mine:the group chat has gone quiet

8 lines · lyric

Happy Debts

The QuillOak Editors

Some debts are happy ones.What you did —the showing up, the staying late,

8 lines · free verse

Two Syllables

The QuillOak Editors

"Thank you" is a small return —two syllables, one breath —for someone who showed up and stayed

8 lines · lyric

Far from Love the Heavenly Father

Emily Dickinson

Far from Love the Heavenly FatherLeads the Chosen Child,Oftener through Realm of Briar

8 lines · lyric

Lines to an Old Sweetheart

Robert Burns

ONCE fondly lov’d, and still remember’d dear, Sweet early object of my youthful vows,Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere,

8 lines · lyric

Love in the Guise of Friendship

Robert Burns

YOUR friendship much can make me blest, O why that bliss destroy!Why urge the only, one request

8 lines · lyric

Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father

Robert Burns

O YE whose cheek the tear of pity stains, Draw near with pious rev’rence, and attend!Here lie the loving husband’s dear remains,

9 lines · lyric

The waters chased him as he fled

Emily Dickinson

The waters chased him as he fled,Not daring look behind —A billow whispered in his Ear,

10 lines · lyric

Farewell

Robert Louis Stevenson

FAREWELL, and when forthI through the Golden Gates to Golden IslesSteer without smiling, through the sea of smiles,

10 lines · lyric

Love and Friendship

Emily Brontë · 1846

Love is like the wild rose-briar,Friendship like the holly-tree —The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms

12 lines · lyric

Bereavement in their death to feel

Emily Dickinson

Bereavement in their death to feelWhom We have never seen —A Vital Kinsmanship import

12 lines · lyric

Love—is that later Thing than Death

Emily Dickinson

Love — is that later Thing than Death —More previous — than Life —Confirms it at its entrance — And

12 lines · lyric

How Human Nature dotes

Emily Dickinson

How Human Nature dotesOn what it can't detect.The moment that a Plot is plumbed

13 lines · lyric

The Arrow and the Song

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1845

I shot an arrow into the air,It fell to earth, I knew not where;For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

13 lines · lyric

From Sunset to Star Rise

Christina Rossetti

Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not:I am no summer friend, but wintry cold,A silly sheep benighted from the fold,

14 lines · lyric

Later life

Christina Rossetti

Something this foggy day, a something whichIs neither of this fog nor of today,Has set me dreaming of the winds that play

14 lines · lyric

To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses

John Keats

As late I rambled in the happy fields,What time the skylark shakes the tremulous dewFrom his lush clover covert;—when anew

14 lines · lyric

Native Moments

Walt Whitman

NATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!Give me now libidinous joys only!Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank!

14 lines · lyric

Sonnet 111: O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide

William Shakespeare

O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide,The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,That did not better for my life provide

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan

William Shakespeare

Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groanFor that deep wound it gives my friend and me!Is't not enough to torture me alone,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 134: So, now I have confess'd that he is thine

William Shakespeare

So, now I have confess'd that he is thine,And I my self am mortgag'd to thy will,Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 144: Two loves I have of comfort and despair

William Shakespeare

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,Which like two spirits do suggest me still:The better angel is a man right fair,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 149: Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not

William Shakespeare

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,When I against myself with thee partake?Do I not think on thee, when I forgot

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

William Shakespeare

When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 32: If thou survive my well-contented day

William Shakespeare

If thou survive my well-contented day,When that churl Death my bones with dust shall coverAnd shalt by fortune once more re-survey

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 42: That thou hast her it is not all my grief

William Shakespeare

That thou hast her it is not all my grief,And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the way

William Shakespeare

How heavy do I journey on the way,When what I seek, my weary travel's end,Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse

William Shakespeare

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse,And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlookThe dedicated words which writers use

14 lines · sonnet

I felt my life with both my hands

Emily Dickinson

I felt my life with both my handsTo see if it was there —I held my spirit to the Glass,

16 lines · lyric

Verses on Captain Grose

Robert Burns

KEN ye aught o’ Captain Grose?—Igo, and ago,If he’s amang his friends or foes?—Iram, coram, dago.Is he to Abra’m’s bosom gane?—Igo, and ago,

16 lines · lyric

Hope

Emily Brontë

Hope was but a timid friend;She sat without the grated den,Watching how my fate would tend,

20 lines · lyric

My period had come for Prayer

Emily Dickinson

My period had come for Prayer —No other Art — would do —My Tactics missed a rudiment —

20 lines · lyric

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold

Emily Dickinson

The Moon was but a Chin of GoldA Night or two ago —And now she turns Her perfect Face

20 lines · lyric

Election Ballad for Westerha’

Robert Burns

THE LADDIES by the banks o’ Nith Wad trust his Grace 1 wi a’, Jamie;But he’ll sair them, as he sair’d the King—

23 lines · lyric

Who were "the Father and the Son"

Emily Dickinson

Who were "the Father and the Son"We pondered when a child,And what had they to do with us

24 lines · lyric

Inscription to Chloris

Robert Burns

’TIS Friendship’s pledge, my young, fair Friend, Nor thou the gift refuse,Nor with unwilling ear attend

24 lines · lyric

When I heard at the Close of the Day

Walt Whitman

WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv’d with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow’d;

27 lines · lyric

No, Thank You John

Christina Rossetti

I never said I loved you, John:Why will you tease me day by day,And wax a weariness to think upon

31 lines · lyric

The Wind Is Without There And Howls In The Trees

Robert Louis Stevenson

THE wind is without there and howls in the trees,And the rain-flurries drum on the glass:Alone by the fireside with elbows on knees

32 lines · lyric

On Scaring some Water-Fowl in Lock Turit

Robert Burns

WHY, ye tenants of the lake,For me your wat’ry haunt forsake?Tell me, fellow-creatures, why

40 lines · lyric

Sylvander to Clarinda

Robert Burns

WHEN dear Clarinda, 1 matchless fair, First struck Sylvander’s raptur’d view,He gaz’d, he listened to despair,

41 lines · lyric

Hail! Childish Slave Of Social Rules

Robert Louis Stevenson

HAIL! Childish slaves of social rulesYou had yourselves a hand in making!How I could shake your faith, ye fools,

56 lines · lyric

Spontaneous Me

Walt Whitman

SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,

61 lines · lyric

The Whistle: A Ballad

Robert Burns

I SING of a Whistle, a Whistle of worth,I sing of a Whistle, the pride of the North.Was brought to the court of our good Scottish King,

72 lines · lyric

Common questions

What is a famous poem about friendship?

Robert Burns's 'Auld Lang Syne' is the world's most-sung friendship poem — most people just don't realize that's what they're singing every New Year's Eve.

What do you write to a best friend?

Name the history: the year you met, the disaster you survived together, the joke that won't die. A friendship poem is mostly well-organized evidence.