Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden was born on 24 January 1858 at 15 Francis Road Edgbaston, Birmingham. Her mother, Caroline Anne, died following post-natal complications and so Naden was raised by her maternal grandparents. This was an affectionate relationship which she recalled with a dedicatory sonnet in her first collection of poetry Songs and Sonnets of Springtime (1881):
Ye who received me, when your hearts were sore,
With double welcome, since I came in lieu
Of one whose fond embrace I never knew--
Your child, my mother, dear for evermore--
Who scarce had time to greet the babe she bore,
But, dying in her spring, bequeathed to you,
Her …
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