Famous Friendships Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Friendships poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous friendships poems. These examples illustrate what a famous friendships poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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533. Song—Forlorn my love no comfort here

by Robert Burns
 FORLORN, my Love, no comfort near,
Far, far from thee, I wander here;
Far, far from thee, the fate severe,
 At which I most repine, Love.


Chorus.—O wert thou, Love, but near me!
But near, near, near me,
How kindly thou wouldst cheer me,
 And mingle sighs with mine, Love.


Around me scowls a wintry sky,
Blasting each bud of hope and joy;
And shelter, shade, nor...Read more of this...

Friendships Mystery To My Dearest Lucasia

by Katherine Philips
 Come, my Lucasia, since we see 
That miracles Men's Faith do move,
By wonder and by prodigy
To the dull angry World let's prove
There's a Religion in our Love. 

For Though we were design'd t'agree,
That Fate no liberty destroys,
But our Election is as free
As Angels, who with greedy choice
Are yet determin'd to their joys. 

Our hearts are doubled by the loss,
Here...Read more of this...

Come Walk With Me

by Emily Brontë
 Come, walk with me, 
There's only thee 
To bless my spirit now - 
We used to love on winter nights
To wander through the snow; 
Can we not woo back old delights?
The clouds rush dark and wild 
They fleck with shade our mountain heights
The same as long ago 
And on the horizon rest at last
In looming masses piled; 
While moonbeams...Read more of this...

Stanzas to a Friend

by Mary Darby Robinson
 AH! think no more that Life's delusive joys,
Can charm my thoughts from FRIENDSHIP'S dearer claim;
Or wound a heart, that scarce a wish employs,
For age to censure, or discretion blame. 

Tir'd of the world, my weary mind recoils
From splendid scenes, and transitory joys;
From fell Ambition's false and fruitless toils,
From hope that flatters, and from bliss that cloys. 

With THEE, above...Read more of this...

340. Song—Thou Fair Eliza

by Robert Burns
 TURN again, thou fair Eliza!
 Ae kind blink before we part;
Rue on thy despairing lover,
 Can’st thou break his faithfu’ heart?
Turn again, thou fair Eliza!
 If to love thy heart denies,
Oh, in pity hide the sentence
 Under friendship’s kind disguise!


Thee, sweet maid, hae I offended?
 My offence is loving thee;
Can’st thou wreck his peace for ever,
 Wha for thine...Read more of this...

Preference

by Charlotte Bronte
 NOT in scorn do I reprove thee,
Not in pride thy vows I waive,
But, believe, I could not love thee,
Wert thou prince, and I a slave.
These, then, are thine oaths of passion ?
This, thy tenderness for me ?
Judged, even, by thine own confession,
Thou art steeped in perfidy.
Having vanquished, thou wouldst leave me !
Thus I read thee long ago;
Therefore, dared I...Read more of this...

Avenging and Bright

by Thomas Moore
 Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin
On him who the brave sons of Usna betray'd! -- 
For every fond eye he hath waken'd a tear in 
A drop from his heart-wounds shall weep o'er her blade. 

By the red cloud that hung over Conor's dark dwelling,
When Ulad's three champions lay sleeping in gore -- 
By the billows...Read more of this...

Moon-Lover

by Robert William Service
 I

The Moon is like a ping-pong ball;
I lean against the orchard wall,
And see it soar into the void,
A silky sphere of celluloid.

Then fairy fire enkindles it,
Like gossamer by taper lit,
Until it glows above the trees
As mellow as a Cheddar cheese.

And up and up I watch it press
Into appalling loneliness;
Like realms of ice without a stain,
A corpse Moon come to...Read more of this...

The Leal

by Dorothy Parker
 The friends I made have slipped and strayed,
And who's the one that cares?
A trifling lot and best forgot-
And that's my tale, and theirs.

Then if my friendships break and bend,
There's little need to cry
The while I know that every foe
Is faithful till I die....Read more of this...

On A Distant View Of Harrow

by George (Lord) Byron
 Ye scenes of my childhood, whose lov'd recollection
Embitters the present, compar'd with the past;
Where science first dawn'd on the powers of reflection,
And friendships were form'd, too romantic to last;

Where fancy, yet, joys to retrace the resemblance
Of comrades, in friendship and mischief allied;
How welcome to me your ne'er fading remembrance,
Which rests in the bosom, though hope is deny'd!

Again I revisit...Read more of this...

A Satyre Against Mankind

by John Wilmot
 Were I - who to my cost already am
One of those strange, prodigious creatures, man -
A spirit free to choose for my own share
What sort of flesh and blood I pleased to wear,
I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bear,
Or anything but that vain animal,
Who is so proud of being rational.

His senses are too gross; and he'll contrive
A...Read more of this...

A Part of an Ode

by Ben Jonson
A Part of an Ode to the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that noble pair Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison


IT is not growing like a tree 
In bulk doth make man better be; 
Or standing long an oak three hundred year  
To fall a log at last dry bald and sere: 
A lily of a day 5...Read more of this...

The German Parnassus

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 in the wares before you spread,
Types of all things may be read.

'NEATH the shadow

Of these bushes,
On the meadow

Where the cooling water gushes.
Phoebus gave me, when a boy,
All life's fullness to enjoy.
So, in silence, as the God
Bade them with his sov'reign nod,
Sacred Muses train'd my days
To his praise.--
With the bright and silv'ry flood
Of Parnassus stirr'd my blood,
And the seal so...Read more of this...

Frances

by Charlotte Bronte
 SHE will not sleep, for fear of dreams, 
But, rising, quits her restless bed, 
And walks where some beclouded beams 
Of moonlight through the hall are shed.

Obedient to the goad of grief, 
Her steps, now fast, now lingering slow, 
In varying motion seek relief 
From the Eumenides of woe.

Wringing her hands, at intervals­ 
But long as mute as phantom...Read more of this...

In The Days When The World Was Wide

by Henry Lawson
 The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow, 
For little is new where the crowds resort, and less where the wanderers go; 
Greater, or smaller, the same old things we see by the dull road-side -- 
And tired of all is the spirit that sings 
of the days when the world was...Read more of this...

203. Sylvander to Clarinda

by Robert Burns
 WHEN dear Clarinda, 1 matchless fair,
 First struck Sylvander’s raptur’d view,
He gaz’d, he listened to despair,
 Alas! ’twas all he dared to do.


Love, from Clarinda’s heavenly eyes,
 Transfixed his bosom thro’ and thro’;
But still in Friendships’ guarded guise,
 For more the demon fear’d to do.


That heart, already more than lost,
 The imp beleaguer’d all perdue;
For frowning Honour kept his...Read more of this...

No Thank You John

by Christina Rossetti
 I never said I loved you, John:
Why will you tease me day by day,
And wax a weariness to think upon
With always "do" and "pray"?

You Know I never loved you, John;
No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a face as wan
As shows an hour-old ghost?

I dare say Meg or Moll would take
Pity upon you,...Read more of this...

To A Young Lady

by John Trumbull
 In vain, fair Maid, you ask in vain,
My pen should try th' advent'rous strain,
And following truth's unalter'd law,
Attempt your character to draw.
I own indeed, that generous mind
That weeps the woes of human kind,
That heart by friendship's charms inspired,
That soul with sprightly fancy fired,
The air of life, the vivid eye,
The flowing wit, the keen reply--
To paint these beauties as they...Read more of this...

The Ghosts

by Robert William Service
 Smith, great writer of stories, drank; found it immortalized his pen;
Fused in his brain-pan, else a blank, heavens of glory now and then;
Gave him the magical genius touch; God-given power to gouge out, fling
Flat in your face a soul-thought -- Bing!
Twiddle your heart-strings in his clutch. "Bah!" said Smith, "let my body lie
 stripped to the buff in swinish...Read more of this...

The Triumph Of Achilles

by Louise Gluck
 In the story of Patroclus
no one survives, not even Achilles
who was nearly a god.
Patroclus resembled him; they wore
the same armor.

Always in these friendships
one serves the other, one is less than the other:
the hierarchy
is always apparant, though the legends
cannot be trusted--
their source is the survivor,
the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire
compared to this loss?

In his...Read more of this...

The Poet

by Amy Lowell
 What instinct forces man to journey on,
Urged by a longing blind but dominant!
Nothing he sees can hold him, nothing daunt
His never failing eagerness. The sun
Setting in splendour every night has won
His vassalage; those towers flamboyant
Of airy cloudland palaces now haunt
His daylight wanderings. Forever done
With simple joys and quiet happiness
He guards the vision of the sunset sky;
Though faint with weariness...Read more of this...

The Lover And The Moon

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
A lover whom duty called over the wave,
[Pg 30]With himself communed: "Will my love be true
If left to herself? Had I better not sue
Some friend to watch over her, good and grave?
But my friend might fail in my need," he said,
"And I return to find love dead.
Since friendships fade like the flow'rs of June,
I will leave her in...Read more of this...

I Have Some Friends

by Robert William Service
 I have some friends, some worthy friends,
And worthy friends are rare:
These carpet slippers on my feet,
That padded leather chair;
This old and shabby dressing-gown,
So well the worse of wear.

I have some friends, some honest friends,
And honest friends are few;
My pipe of briar, my open fire,
A book that's not too new;
My bed so warm, the nights of storm
I love to listen...Read more of this...

My Lost Youth

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
OFTEN I think of the beautiful town 
That is seated by the sea; 
Often in thought go up and down 
The pleasant streets of that dear old town, 
And my youth comes back to me. 5 
And a verse of a Lapland song 
Is haunting my memory still: 
"A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth...Read more of this...

Sonnet to Ingratitude

by Mary Darby Robinson
 He that's ungrateful, has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.
- YOUNG. 


I COULD have borne affliction's sharpest thorn;
The sting of malice­poverty's deep wound;
The sneers of vulgar pride, the idiot's scorn;
Neglected Love, false Friendship's treach'rous sound; 

I could, with patient smile, extract the dart 
Base calumny had planted in my heart; 
The fangs of...Read more of this...

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