What is a Friend? I'll tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can go naked with him. He seems to ask you to put on nothing, only to be what you really are. When you are with him, you do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in your nature that cause others to misjudge you. With him you breathe freely -- you can avow your little vanities and envies and absurdities and in opening them up to him they are dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty. He understands. -- You can weep with him, laugh with him, pray with him -- through and underneath it all he sees, knows and loves you. A Friend, I repeat, is one with whom YOU DARE TO BE YOURSELF. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A GENTLE ECHO ON WOMAN (IN THE DORIC MANNER) by JONATHAN SWIFT BEVERLY SHORE IN WINTER by THOMAS GOLD APPLETON THE POET'S SHIELD by ARCHILOCHUS EARLY DEATH AND FAME by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE EMPTY BOTTLE by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN THE FIGHT WITH THE SNAPPING TURTLE; OR, THE AMERICAN ST. GEORGE by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN MARIE MIGNOT by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |