Emily Bronte’s ‘Love and Friendship’ (1846), Robert Frost’s ‘A Time to Talk’ (1916) and Mary Oliver’s ‘What is the greatest gift?’ (2008) are great reads this week, as we celebrate International Day of Friendship on 30th July 2026. Though an ‘Et tu, Brute?’ phase is not a rarity for many of us, these poems help us to recollect the basic tenets of long-lasting relationships: steadfast presence and unenvious joy.
Emily Bronte asks,
‘Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly-tree—
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?’
Mary Oliver starts so,
‘What is the greatest gift?
Could it be the world itself — the oceans, the meadowlark,
the patience of the trees in the wind?
Could it be love, with its sweet clamour of passion?’
Robert Frost pens down a beautiful evening in his poem:
‘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
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?’
Roses are fragrant only in the spring, but the holly is evergreen. Camaraderie stands the test of time. Oliver says that she is in awe of her friend’s soul more than hers, and she finds herself clapping her hands ‘for yours more than my own’. So, what does the persona in Frost’s poem do when his friend calls to him, while passing by?
‘I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.’
The poets discuss friendship as an ethical, enduring choice of belongingness. Leave that laptop on your desk for a while. Do not miss a cup of tea in the evening, and engage in a lively chit-chat with your friend. The best is yet to be!
The writer is a poet, translator and assistant professor of English at BCM College (Autonomous), Kottayam
