position: absolute will position the element by coordinates, relative to the closest positioned ancestor, i.e. the closest parent which isn't position: static.
Have your four divs nested inside the target div, give the target div position: relative, and use position: absolute on the others.
Structure your HTML similar to this:
<div id="container">
<div class="top left"></div>
<div class="top right"></div>
<div class="bottom left"></div>
<div class="bottom right"></div>
</div>
And this CSS should work:
#container {
position: relative;
}
#container > * {
position: absolute;
}
.left {
left: 0;
}
.right {
right: 0;
}
.top {
top: 0;
}
.bottom {
bottom: 0;
}
...