That bitter word, which closed all earthly friendships and finished every feast of love farewell!

Pollok’s line laments the finality of the word “farewell,” treating it not as a polite leave-taking but as a sentence that ends human intimacy. By calling it “bitter,” he emphasizes the grief embedded in parting—especially the kind of parting that death or irrevocable separation makes permanent. The phrase “earthly friendships” suggests a contrast between temporal bonds and whatever spiritual continuance the poem may imply elsewhere; here, the focus is on how life’s loves and communal joys (“every feast of love”) are cut short. The exclamation intensifies the sense of sudden closure and emotional shock.