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?