We were young, we were merry, we were very, very wise, And the door stood open at our feast, When there passed us a woman with the West in her eyes, And a man with his back to the East.

Other family friends included Robert Browning Alfred Lord Tennyson John Millais and Fanny Kemble. Stokes Co. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (23 September 1861 – 25 August 1907) was a British novelist and poet who also wrote essays and reviews.

Robert Bridges the Poet Laureate described her poems as 'wonderously beautiful… but mystical rather and enigmatic'. A family friend the composer Hubert Parry also set several of her poems to music. Her poem "The Blue Bird" was set to music by Charles Villiers Stanford and "Thy Hand in Mine" was set by Frank Bridge.