We Have Been Friends Together

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?

We Have Been Friends Together

by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, 1840