Love is like a...

Hartley Coleridge
Friendship

When we were idlers with the loitering rills,
The need of human love we little noted:
Our love was nature; and the peace that floated
On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills,
To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:
One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,
That, wisely doting, ask’d not why it doted,
And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills.
But now I find how dear thou wert to me;
That man is more than half of nature’s treasure,
Of that fair beauty which no eye can see,
Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;
And now the streams may sing for others’ pleasure,
The hills sleep on in their eternity.

http://www.poetry.com/lovepoems/lovepoem.asp?id=555

I think the theme of the poem is the love of friendship.
The poem is describing two best friends that were so
close with eachother, they basically were one soul...each
other's other half. Their friendship was a positive one, a
beautiful one. No one can understand their secrets and
their closeness...only they can ever know and ever understand.

The author uses metaphor or simile to express the theme
of the piece when the poem says, "That man is more than
half of nature's treasure..." This shows that they view their
special bond and relationship as a treasure and that they
are fond of eachother and think highly of one another. I think
this does a great job describing the powerful friendship.