Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton 1808–77

We Have Been Friends Together

NortonCar

WE have been friends together,

In sunshine and in shade;

Since first beneath the chestnut-trees

In infancy we played.

But coldness dwells within thy heart,

A cloud is on thy brow;

We have been friends together—

Shall a light word part us now?

We have been gay together;

We have laugh’d at little jests;

For the fount of hope was gushing

Warm and joyous in our breasts.

But laughter now hath fled thy lip,

And sullen glooms thy brow;

We have been gay together—

Shall a light word part us now?

We have been sad together,

We have wept, with bitter tears,

O’er the grass-grown graves, where slumber’d

The hopes of early years.

The voices which are silent there

Would bid thee clear thy brow;

We have been sad together—

Oh! what shall part us now?