My Friend Is Dead

Sarah A. HeinzerlingSad

My friend is dead! I shall not see her face again, Or hear her soothing voice When I need The comfort of kind words; I shall not meet her on the street; She will not come To visit me at home; My friend is dead!

Yet, still she lives, And moves serenely through the halls, The winding, hidden halls Of Memory. Her smile is pictured there As I last saw it, Etched on my brain Made to retain The priceless records of past deeds, Past friendships and past loves.

Even the echo of her voice As I last heard it, Floats through that mystic room Of treasured memories, And will, until the day When some one says of me— "My friend is dead!"

Sarah A. Heinzerling

SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)

Mood:: Sad
Topics:: death, memory, friend

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Summary

Sarah A. Heinzerling's "My Friend Is Dead" begins with a flat, blunt announcement, then lists the small losses that make death real: no more face, no more comforting voice, no more chance meetings on the street or visits at home. The speaker sounds stunned, almost counting what has been taken away.

Then the poem turns on a single word, "Yet." The friend is gone, but she is not wholly gone. She lives on in the "halls of Memory," which the speaker imagines as a kind of house, with her smile fixed there exactly as it was last seen and even the echo of her voice drifting through. The mood shifts from raw grief to something steadier and more tender, close to comfort.

The ending widens the view. Memory only lasts as long as the person holding it, and one day someone will say of the speaker, "My friend is dead!" The poem closes on grief, but also on a quiet acceptance that this is how loss passes down.

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