Though you are in your shining days,

Voices among the crowd

And new friends busy with your praise,

Be not unkind or proud,

But think about old friends the most:

Time’s bitter flood will rise,

Your beauty perish and be lost

For all eyes but these eyes.

– W. B. Yeats

I was reading one of my poetry books about friendship and I came across this poem by W. B. Yeats.

It is so captivating in its simplicity and yet says a lot.

We make friends over the years, we share everything with them, our lives, our loves, our likes, our pet hates, our grumps, our worries, our triumphs, our losses, our families, and sometimes our friends, who become mutual friends.

Being individuals in our own rights, sometimes we branch out and develop another set of friends because of new interests, hobbies, or connections.

Suddenly we move into a different circle and lost touch with old friends; we do not have much time for old friends in favour of new ones and this is what W. B. Yeats’s poem, I think, is all about. Forgetting or overlooking old friends, who have been with you through thick and thin, for new ones. The poem is a reminder or even a warning, if you like, that good old friends because they know you inside and out will always be there for you no matter what.

Purple Roses
iPhone photo by JMorton