A man speaks to a friend who has died, remembering that death found him alone with the door open. The two had once been caught up in “the mill of hate,” grinding tricks and insults against each other. At the funeral, many people weep and ask why such a young man had to go. The speaker then turns the grief back on himself and the mourners: if they had truly loved him while he was alive, death would not have dared come near. The tone is bitter and regretful rather than comforted. The poem exposes the gap between how people treat someone in life and how they mourn him after death. It leaves an unsettling feeling that the real loss may have happened long before the death—through neglect, conflict, and love that arrived too late.
The Death of My Friend — Summary
Death sneaked up and took you, my friend. She found the door open, and you lying there alone, To the mill of hate we had gone grinding our tricks and our defamations against each other.
Too many people had come to your funeral my friend. All of them downhearted, blubbering. ‘Why did you leave us, our friend? Ah, man, you were too young to pass away.’
Friend, if we really loved you that much while you were still alive, death would not even dare to come close to you.