We Have Been Friends Together

Caroline Norton was an extremely popular writer during her lifetime but is largely forgotten now. While the book “We Have Been Friends Together” appears in, The Undying One and Other Poems, was favorably reviewed upon its publication in 1830, this small poem did particularly well. It was widely anthologized during the Victorian era and beyond. While the 1830s were difficult for Norton due to the accusations made by her husband, the publication of The Dream and Other Poems in 1840 helped solidify her reputation. According to historian Dr. Andrzej Diniejko, Norton gained a reputation as the “Byron of poetesses” (a link to Diniejko’s article can be found in Further Resources). Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a prominent English poet twenty years Norton’s senior. Famous and flamboyant, Byron was well known, and it is likely Norton would have been influenced by his work. As quoted by Diniejko, in 1840, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s son claimed Norton had the same “intense personal passion by which Byron’s poetry grasps.” Coleridge also compared Norton to poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) in the way Norton discusses “man and nature.” Norton did use nature imagery in many of her shorter poems as Wordsworth did, and her longer poems did engage in political commentary, often advocating for the oppressed, much like Byron’s work.