‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare

Theme (Could be used as an introduction): ‘Friend’ is a poem about the recollection of a happy, free, and adventurous childhood
shared by two friends. Now, however, in adulthood, the speaker depicts the place the friends used to play as barren and
unwelcoming. This poem explores the theme of childhood, adulthood, freedom, nature, imagination, pain, and hope.

Stanza 1

Do you remember The poem starts with a question, as if the speaker is asking his friend directly, addressing his friend,
whether he/ she remembers some of the specific details of their childhood experience. The tone
used here is nostalgic, conversational.
that wild stretch of land The way the speaker describes the details of their childhood experience is rather interesting. The
images, ‘wild stretch of land’, ‘a lone tree guarding the point from the sharp-tongued sea’, are not
necessarily (unambiguously) positive with the words like ‘wild’ and ‘the sharp-tongued sea’.

with the lone tree guarding the point
However, the poet is showing that he/ she and his/her friend were in this environment together.
They shared the dangerous (or adventurous) experience on this ‘wild stretch of land’. Even though
the sea was ‘sharp-tongued’, which implies a sense, again, of wildness, this was something the
friends experienced together and clearly enjoyed as children. The experience was very memorable
to the speaker and hence this explains why the very beginning of the poem tends to put the reader
straight into that very vivid image of their childhood experience.

The idea that there was a ‘lone tree guarding the point from the sharp-tongued sea’ portrays that the
tree was at the edge of the sea. Moreover, it explores that the friends were almost guarding that
point as well, as if it was their territory: perhaps, they even prevented others to visit their ‘territory’.
from the sharp-tongued sea? The idea of ‘guarding’ their land shows that the childhood imagination could be wild.

The word ‘guarding’ implies conditions of protection. In fact, both the ‘sharp-tongued sea’ and
‘wild stretch of land’ are regarded as negative images, but the tree stands out as a protector. The
word also makes connection to the ‘fort’ in the second stanza that the friends ‘built out of branches’.
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Stanza 2
The fort we built out of branches
wrenched from the tree, is dead wood now.
The air that was thick with the whirr of
toetoe spears succumbs at last to the grey gull’s wheel.
A ‘fort ‘has a strong connotation of something protective, like a layer that is protecting
the friends from the outside world. The construction shows childhood creativity, and
probably the children’s imagination made it even better than in reality. The tree also takes
on the role of a provider which contributes the material for the fort.
To build the ‘fort’, the children ‘wrenched’ the branches. The alliteration (plosive) shows
that the branches were so strong that they needed to apply force and strength. The word
‘wrenched’ further emphasizes the effect of alliteration. The speaker is remembering
something that is of youthful vigor.
This is the first time in the poem where the speaker introduced the theme about the
sadness of his/her passed childhood. The image is quite a stark one: their childhood
memory is gone and dead now.
The first sad image is very quickly followed up with another contrasting image. The
idea that the air was thick with the movement of the grass (toetoe spears) suggests that
the air was thick with the children’s imagination and was filled with the children’s
excitement. In the wilderness, the friends were not constrained by sadness. The
speaker’s childhood is a safe space where the speaker could explore and imagine. The
use of onomatopoeia portrays nature as very lively and energetic.
The children succumbed and laughed to the seagulls. The literal meaning is that the
seagulls have taken over the grass, they have devoured it. But metaphorically, the
speaker is presenting the idea that adulthood is quite bare in contrast with childhood.
The reason why the gulls are described as ‘grey’ gives the impression of blandness
which contrasts with the vibrant image with ‘the whirr of the toetoe spears’.
The word ‘wheel’ suggests that the birds are whirling around in a circular shape. The
other change of tone in this line shows the way in which the landscape has changed,
making connection to how life itself (childhood vs. adulthood) has changed.
The alliteration of the sound ‘g’ is also a use of plosive which emphasizes the harshness
of nature. The change of life is inevitable.
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Stanza 3
Oyster-studded roots
of the mangrove yield no finer feast
of silver-bellied eels, and sea-snails
cooked in a rusty can
In this stanza, we have a description on what the friends were doing on their adventure. The ‘rusty can’
suggests that the friends were finding different types of natural food sources and cooking them themselves,
which links to the idea of the ‘fort’ that they wrenched out of branches.
The image presented in the stanza is quite wholesome. It describes two children enjoying nature and foraging
inside it. Even though the meal is very simple, cooked in a ‘rusty can’, the speaker sees it as something
luxurious by declaring that it is ‘no finer feast’. The use of irony and juxtaposition (a ‘feast’ cooked in a
‘rusty can’) emphasizes how exciting this memory was for the friends at that time. The simple meal was also
seen as something deluxe since the speaker was able to eat with his/ her friend. This highlights how
importantly the speaker views the friendship.
Structurally, the descriptions in this stanza mirror the first stanza. They tell the readers what happened during
their adventure in ‘that wild stretch of land’. By doing so, the speaker is trying to emphasize that these
memories he/ she had with his/ her friend are quite powerful and memorial.
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Stanza 4
Allow me to mend the broken ends
of shared days:
but I wanted to say
that the tree we climbed
that gave food and drink
to youthful dreams, is no more.
Pursed to the lips of her fine-edged
leaves made whistle – now stamp
no silken tracery on the cracked
clay floor.
This sentence gets the heart of what the speaker is trying to present, which is to recollect and perhaps, trying
to recapture some of those positive memories from childhood. The ‘broken ends of shared days’ is a
metaphor of their disappeared friendship. It may be due to the fact that they’ve moved on in life and gone
their separate ways, or perhaps either one of them has moved away. Now, the speaker is asking for permission
to try and ‘mend’ their disappeared childhood. Perhaps, one of the ways the speaker is going to ‘mend’ it is
simply by recollecting and describing the joy that he/ she and the friends shared, giving the memories
recognition that they are beautiful but fleeting.
However, almost as soon as the speaker have asked for this permission ‘to mend the broken ends’, he has to
state the fact that things have changed. We, as readers, can image the friends climbing this tree together and
perhaps talking about the future that their ‘youthful dreams’ hope for, how life might turn out for their plans
and ambitions. But now, the speaker has to admit that the tree is no more. Again, the poet presents a stark
image of the disappearance of something important to the friends. The use of enjambment creates a metaphor:
The tree was a place where children are given the ability to imagine about their adventures. The poet
juxtaposes the vibrant image of the tree (as a provider) with the image of the disappeared tree, creating a
contrast between childhood and adulthood.
These few lines also focus on the tree. The readers imply that once they finished climbing the tree, they
would take some of the leaves of this tree, press them to their lips, and make whistling sounds. The speaker
remembers the activity, proving that he not only remembers what he and his friend see in their adventure,
but also what they hear.
The idea of ‘silken’ is quite delicate, suggesting that the tree has very smooth leaves made of luxurious and
precious material. However, the leaves also bear a fragile nature. When they fall down, they leave very gentle
soft traces. But as the floor is cracked and dry, there is no ‘tracery’. It implies that their friendship has gone.
The ground itself has become ‘cracked’. Metaphorically, it can be referred that in adulthood, there are cracks.
Adulthood has caused the speaker to be fragmented, as opposed to being safe and secure in childhood.
Through the passage of time, things affect the speaker differently, and that he is more responsible for things.
The ‘cracked clay floor’ may also be a metaphor of the ‘crack’ that has appeared in their friendship, the
separation that has followed after the close relationship. Maybe the friends have moved apart and lost touch
with one another so there is a ‘crack’ (a gap) between them.
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Stanza 5
Friend,
in this drear
dreamless time I clasp
your hand if only for reassurance
that all our jeweled fantasies were
real and wore splendid rags.
Here is another example of direct address employed by the poet. The phrase ‘friend,’ is isolated on the one
line, emphasizing the importance of the relationship and making it known that he wants to mend the
relationship.
The current time that the poet is experiencing in adulthood is bleak and empty. The speaker and his friend
used to dream and imagine things when they were little, but now his time is ‘dreamless’, there is nothing
actually exciting and figure rating.
Having a ‘dream’ usually means what people vision in their nighttime, but in the poem, the ‘dream’ presents
the idea of a hope, a wish, and a desire for the future. Perhaps, the speaker is saying that different from
childhood, he does not feel to have hope and wish any longer in adulthood.
In this line, the speaker might be explaining why he feels there isn’t anything to ‘give food and drink’ to his
dreams anymore. It presents the sadness of adulthood.
The word ‘clasp’ suggests an urgency to be reassured that the memories are ‘jeweled fantasies’, something
valuable and precious, were ‘real and wore splendid rags’. The phrase ‘splendid rags’ is an oxymoron.
‘Splendid’ implies something rich and valuable but ‘rags’ carries the meaning of clothes disheveled and
simple, even torn. The poet tries to tell that, as if in childhood, they dress themselves up in ‘splendid rags’,
but these are bejeweled things because of their imagination. It fits the idea of ‘no finer feast’. In children’s
eyes (i.e. childhood), things that are just very simple, can be viewed as fancy.
The speaker is personifying the ‘splendid rags’, giving them a human form, He is personifying the idea of
these ‘jeweled fantasies’ can be worn ‘splendid rags’, emphasizing that the speaker and his friend shared a
very intimate relationship.
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Stanza 6

Perhaps the tree The word’ perhaps’ create quite a doubtful but at the same time a hopeful tone. It is up to the interpretation
of the reader whether the speaker is confident with the reestablishment of the friendship.

will strike root again;
give soothing shade to a hurt and
troubled world.
The speaker wants the ‘hurt and troubled world’ to be rectified. However, the ‘world’ that the speaker is
describing might be understood as various kinds of ‘worlds’.
● It can be referred to the whole world. In the war-torn world, it has so many problems, and so many
people are being displaced.
● It can also be referred as the speaker’s own life, his adulthood; where all the beautiful memories
and imaginations of childhood have gone.
● Or even, to an extent, the poet may mean the entire environmentally harmed world. The tree may
act as an environmentally element, a hope for the poet in this world filled with man-made climatic
problems.

The idea of ‘soothing shade’ provides a gentle relief from pain or discomfort. This is perhaps what the
speaker thinks he needs in this time when the world is so hurt and troubled.

Auditory imagery

Example Literary device Effect

‘built out of branches’
‘wrenched’
‘whirr’
‘grey gull’s wheel’
‘no finer feast’
‘silver bellied eels’, ‘sea snails’
‘cracked clay floor’
‘drear dreamless time’
‘soothing shade’
Alliteration (plosive) Emphasizes the robust/ vigorous movements of the children
Onomatopoeia Describing that the branch is forcefully twisted, thus presenting the violence of the
children
Onomatopoeia Gives a buzzing and vibrating sound which creates the pleasant routine of nature
Alliteration (plosive) The harsh sound suggests the devoid of beauty
Alliteration (fricative) Gives an airy sound thus emphasizing the freedom that the friends had
Alliteration (sibilance) Describes the smoothness of nature in childhood
Alliteration (plosive) Creates a harsh sound, as if they are the sounds of cracks, referring to the brokenness of
the friendship
Alliteration (sibilance) The gentle and calm sound produced gives relief to both the speaker and the readers
‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Form and structure

The poet creates a conversational tone, as if he is talking freely

● Enjambment is used. There is little or even no punctuation in some stanzas

● No rhyme scheme
● Use of direct address
● Verses are free and irregular with varied rhythm

Mood

● Conversational and casual

● Nostalgic 懷舊的

Tone

● Nostalgic 懷舊的
● Melancholic
● gentle but sorrowful when speaking about now

Role of the tree

Provider ➢ ‘The fort we built out of branches wrenched from the tree’
➢ ‘That the tree we climbed that gave and drink to youthful dreams’
✓ Literally: provider of food and drink
✓ Metaphorically: a place for bonding dreams and imaginations

Like a mother ➢ The tree plays an important part in the adventure, experiencing almost every detail of the trip

Gives soothing shade ➢ ‘Perhaps the tree… give soothing shade’

‘Friend’ by Hone Tuwhare
Guardian ➢ ‘With the lone tree guarding the point from the sharp-tongued sea?’