As the title states, this poem is about love and friendship. The narrative compares love to a wild rose bush and friendship to a holly tree. The author further states that blooms of such bushes and tree would be symbolic of love and friendship. Ms. Bronte is making a point that there are times when these two ideas can be intertwined and times when they are separated. They come and go freely.
At the end of the first paragraph, the author asks the question that will make up the rest of the poem: “But which will bloom most constantly?” The following two paragraphs answer this question. They talk about when and for how long love and friendship lasts. They also speak in regards to loss of friendship and hopefully the hurt that remains will not kill the recipient.
It is not until the last sentence of the paragraph that the author implies a character. Ms Bronte states that when December comes and the holly bloom (friendship) is blightened (injured or withering), hopefully “HE” will leave the garland green. In other words, the person that is leaving the relationship is a male. Because the author is female and the person leaving the relationship is male, I interrupted this as meaning the character is from a female.
The poem is rich in metaphors. The whole thought that love is a wild rose bush and friendship is a holly tree is the best metaphor. The author is stating to me that love and friendship is surrounding us, we just need to be there to receive it. Another metaphor that is used is the fact that spring brings growth and life and blooms and winter is blight, withering, and injury. Most of us can look outside in the spring and see new growth, however the winter is often compared to dark and death. Yet another metaphor is the green garland. Green garland is compared to the life left after the blooms (love and friendship) are gone. The author is hopeful that after the blooms are gone that the character has not been hurt too much and can go on to bloom again.