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?
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Comments
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Thanks for the background info to this poem. It's always ironic how a couple can start out as friends, get married (or start dating), and the ugly traits reveal themselves. This poem clearly shows the stages this couple went through, and the poet (perhaps exhausted) questions after everything that has happened--"what shall part us now?"
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i thought the poem was kind of confusing
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There are a number of possible interpretations. I see two main ones.
The first a simple quarrel between life-long friends that the writer is trying to patch up.
For the second one must realise that Caroline entered into a marriage with George Norton that went badly wrong. Laughter turning to sadness, Fond words to harsh ones!
Perhaps the weeping over the grave of early hopes refers to this.
But it is known that George beat his wife when she was pregnant and caused her to miscarry what would have been there fourth child. Perhaps the baby represented hope and they cried over it's grave.
Even after this she did try for a reconciliation but it never happened.
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