Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton

* * *

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?