NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS

 

         

                   NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS

            ”New Friends And Old Friends” is a poem written by a Welsh composer and musician Joseph Parry. He was born on 21^st May 1841 in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, United Kingdom, and died in Penarth, Wales, United Kingdom,  on 17^th  February 1903.  

            Before I quote the text of the aforesaid poem, let us have a look at the meaning of the word “Friend”.

            According to some  dictionaries a friend is a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, trust, and support.

            Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines the word friend as a person you know well and like, and who is not usually a member of your family.

            Some synonyms of the word “Friend” are: companion, mate, crony, comrade, playmate, soul mate, confidante, ally, associate, chum, buddy, and alter ego.

            The noun friendship means ---- intimacy, close relationship, affinity, comradeship, fellowship, alliance, and close relationship.

            Psychologically, a friend is more than a physician during one’s sickness or any other adversity upsetting one’s  peace of mind.

            The English clergy Robert Hall (1764-1831) said: A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity.

            He further said: He who has made the acquisition of a judicious and sympathizing friend, may be said to have doubled his mental resources.

            According to the American neurologist and author Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) : He alone has lost the art to live who cannot win new friends.

            One of the lines in Joseph Parry’s poem New Friends And Old Friends says:

            Friendships that have stood the test ---

            Time and change ---are surely best.

 

Another line which compares well with William Shakespeare’s  following lines :

             “  Love is not Time’s  fool”, and “ “Love alters not when it alteration finds”.  is:

            “Friendship never knows decay”.

Finally, what follows is the full text of Joseph Parry’s poem :NEW FRIENDS AND OLD FRIENDS.

  “Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

New-made friendships, like new wine,

Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test—

Time and change—are surely best;

Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,

Friendship never knows decay.

For 'mid old friends, tried and true,

Once more we our youth renew.

But old friends, alas! may die,

New friends must their place supply.

Cherish friendship in your breast—

New is good, but old is best;

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.”

                                                                        ************

G.R.Kanwal

21^st April 2026