Friendship Poems

by Peter Washington (Editor)

A celebration of friendship in all its aspects--from the delight of making a new friend to the serene joys of longtime devotion. Poems about best friends, false friends, dear friends, lost friends, even animal friends. These poems have been selected from the work of great poets in all times and places, including Emily Dickinson, W.H. Auden, Henry Thoreau, Shakespeare, Sappho, Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, Walt Whitman, and many others.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Collections

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 1995

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always pick up these pocket-poetry books because they are easy reads and I have the hope that I'll find a golden poem that will forever be one of my favorites. First of all, I haven't found a golden poem yet. Second, even though it's a short read, it is EXTREMELY BORING. Some of these poems are so old or irrelevant (or both) to me that it makes me not want to read another poem again. Which is sad because there is poetry that makes you want to read more and poetry that doesn't. It always seems like a fifty-fifty chance of what you'll find next. Also, these poems seldom did pertain to friendship. You can find a better collection.

[kory. · Rating 2 out of 5]

still searching for poetry that will be For Me. some of these poems i enjoyed but most of them i did not.

“such love i cannot analyse;
it does not rest in lips or eyes,
neither in kisses nor caress.
partly, i know, it’s gentleness
and understanding in one word
or in brief letters. it’s preserved
by trust and by respect and awe.
these are the words i’m feeling for.
two people, yes, two lasting friends.
the giving comes, the taking ends.
there is no measure for such things.
for this all nature slows and sings.”
friendship, elizabeth jennings

“come when you can: your room will be ready.”
for friends only, w.h. auden

“housemate, i can think you still
bounding to the window-sill,
over which i vaguley see
your small mound beneath the tree,
showing in the autumn shade
that you moulder where you played.”
last words to a dumb friend, thomas hardy

“the last word this one spoke
was my name. the last word
that one spoke
was my name.
my two friends
had never met. but when they said
that last word
they spoke to each other.
i am proud to have given them a language
of one word, a narrow space
in which, without knowing it,
they met each other at last.”
two friends, norman maccaig

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
This is a lovely collection with a lovely theme!

[Fleur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Washington, you have redeemed yourself in my eyes.

[ꜱᴀʀᴀʜ · Rating 1 out of 5]

i love friendship. i love poems. i still disliked this collection.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sweet walk through friendship and time in the words of the ancients, the great poets and our contemporaries. If there is anything dearer to the heart in life than an old friend I don't know it. And there's pretty good coverage of that experience. Lovely, though provoking, touching and bittersweet they run the gamut from Sappho to Cole Porter.

[Daphyne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the best of this series. The poems are archaic and many made reference to specific friends or situations. Overall a more somber treatment of the theme than I had hoped for. There are few winners on here but there are not enough to justify reading the whole thing.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed group of poems. Some are excellent, other didn't impress me.

[Troy Farlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few gems - the rest antiquated British ...

[Kayla Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it doesn't feature many poems from recent decades (published in the '90s), it contains a wide variety of poems. I liked it way more than I had anticipated!

[C Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got two poetry books with selected poems on friendship, I thought the other better (though I think less well known). This one was disappointing.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most are too old and not in a good way - but there are a few good ones. My favorite is “Two Friends” by Norman Maccaig

[astro]

i read this to give a annotated copy to my best friend for her birthday :,)

[BookChampions · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can probably count on one hand the number of truly deep and lasting friends I've had in my 38 years of existence, and though there were many years I wish I had many more, the ones I've found along the way have made many of the poems in this collection resonate with me deeply.

The first half of this collection (the book is broken into chapters such as: "What is Friendship?" and "Strangers" and "Looking Back") helped me understand this human bond—why some friends last and others don't, what is the hunger for companionship, and why we truly need other people. I know someday the poems in the later half, which focus on loss of friendship (primarily to death), will speak to me, but luckily I'm still learning about what friendship truly means. And this collection is special to me because it reminds me of some very special people I'm blessed to know—friends and confidants and even some very special cats.

[Lullyweb]

poetry