poems with no names

dear friend commentary

(Hey guys, I had to do a commentary for one of the poems that I've written for English class so I thought I might share it with you. It sounds really pretentious written in third-person but I didn't really have a choice since it was for school so... enjoy, I guess...?)

In the poem ‘Dear Friend’, the poet expresses the sorrow and longing the persona experiences after the death of a close friend, and his or her attempts to come in terms with it. There’s an underlying tone of depression and bereavement, and the poet utilizes various literary devices to enhance this tone and convey to the reader a sense of melancholy and understanding of loss.

The manipulation of the rhyme scheme illustrates the progression of the internal turmoil the persona faces. In the first two stanzas, the rhymes scheme is a simple AABB format with “memories” with “stories”, and “left” and “theft”. This monotony in the rhyme depicts the numbness the persona undergoes after the realization of his or her friend’s death. This structure later breaks in the third stanza, as it loses any particular rhyme scheme, reflecting the persona’s grief and sorrow as the persona loses the ability to control his or her emotions due to the friend’s demise. However, in the last stanza, the sense of calm is restored a rhyme scheme reappears, depicting how the persona accepts the friend’s death.  But the poem does not return to the initial AABB format, and changes to the new ABAB form conveying the fact that the persona had come in terms with the demise of his or her companion.

The sense of death and bereavement, although is not clearly addressed, is apparent throughout the poem other than the use of the rhyme scheme. The setting of “tonight” in the first stanza has the deeper connotation as the night signifies not only the end of the day, but also the end of one’s personal life. In addition, although the poem is structured in a letter format with the persona addressing his companion as ‘dear friend’, he or she is unable to contact the friend as the friend had gone “to a place unknown, no letter to send”. This irony creates accentuates the overall tone of despair and loss the persona experiences.  

Another literary device the poet implements is the use of anaphora, which accentuates the persona’s sorrow in the poem. In the first stanza, the poet repeats the fact that the friend left him or her ‘”at night’s end”, in the second and last line. However in the last line of the first stanza in contrast to the second line, the poet added the word ‘tears’ emphasizing the impact of the friend’s death on the persona. The second anaphora appears in the second stanza with the phrase “in my” which is used in the first and second line. The possessive word ‘my’ depicts the sense of desperation and strong desire to hold on to the memories the persona had with the friend. However, this effort is found futile as later on the poet uses the word ‘stole’, conveying the fact that due to the friend’s death, these memories won’t be the same anymore.  This idea is also integrates in the last stanza with the repetition of the words ‘with you’, which appears like a desperate attempt to recall back the friend who had already left. Also in the third stanza, the repetition of ‘oh’ depicts an auditory imagery of the speaker, adding to the general tone of sadness and loss. Also the repetition of the words ‘with you’ appears like a desperate attempt to recall back the friend who had already left, while in contrast the poet constantly depicts the friend leaving.

Along with grief and sorrow, the poet also depicts the sense of longing and nostalgia in the poem, emphasizing that there no longer is a future between the two, and that “only the past” is left, including the ‘memories’ and ‘stories’ shared between the them. The syntax of the “past” and “theft” shares the idea that time had been stolen from the friend due to death, illustrating how unprepared the persona was in the sudden death of the friend. The phrase “rightful theft is an oxymoron as despite the criminal nature of ‘theft’, the poet describes it as ‘rightful’. This adds greater depth to the persona’s emotions, showing that although the speaker finds the friend’s death as unfair and even unjust, the speaker understands that the recollections are shared between the two, and the friend is ‘rightful’ in taking parts of the speaker’s own self.

The theme of loneliness is also expressed in the poem. The constant use of ‘I’ illustrates the fact that persona is left alone, as the persona and the friend separates in the consequence of the latter’s death. The lack of identity, including gender, also links to this sense of loneliness, as it appears as if the persona had lost “a part of” him or her, as the friend and been a vital factor of the persona’s character. The clear differentiation between the ‘you’ and the ‘I’, also accentuates the separation of the two individuals. Although there is a use of ‘our’ in the second stanza, the poet later describes in the last line of the stanza ‘you stole a part of me’, conveying the fact that by the friend’s death, the ‘our’ no longer exists. The lack of ‘we’ and ‘our’ throughout the rest of the poem also highlights this fact. Furthermore, compared to the usual format, the third stanza is composed in five lines with the fourth line only have the two words ‘and lonely’, emphasizing the meaning of the word, which again accentuates the sense of loneliness.

However, the last stanza is a shift in the poem, conveying to the readers the persona’s acceptance of the friend’s death, as he or she shows an act of treasuring the last moment of the speaker’s friend’s life, reiterating the words “I shall” in the second and last line of the stanza, making a last promise to the friend. And compared to the previous stanzas, the poet speaks in present tense such as ‘departs’ and ‘parts’, which shows that the poet is facing the current reality and reacting to the friend’s last moments and finally coming in terms with the friend’s death.  

In conclusion, the poet effectively conveys to the reader the emotional distress the persona undergoes due to his or her intimate friend’s death, and the persona attempts to accept and come in terms with it. The readers are able to understand the sense of loss one can experience as they can empathize with the persona’s grief and bereavement.