On Friendship

The idea of divinity or the divine nature is an important motif in the poem. The speaker personifies the force of friendship as something godlike, speaking to both the power of friendship and its special character. In using phrases such as “Celestial strain” (Line 2) and “divinely Bright” (Line 3), the speaker closely associates friendship with the heavenly realm and with the illuminating powers often credited to the divine in Christian theology and art. In describing friendship as exercising an “ample reign” (Line 1), the speaker suggests that friendship itself is a divine force, one that can even mirror the “Amor,” or love, of the divine itself. In personifying friendship through the vocabulary and imagery of the heavenly realm, the speaker elevates friendship as something that is both human and transcendent.

Creation is another important motif in the poem. The divine power of friendship is also a generative one, both as part of its inherent nature and in terms of its effects upon the speaker. Creation appears in the imagery of music, with the speaker describing the “notes” of friendship “Extend[ing] […] to a Celestial strain” (Line 2). The idea of musical “notes” soaring or extending in a “Celestial strain” to places the human eye cannot see or even fathom suggests the vastness of what friendship can encompass, invoking its heavenly nature.