Songs of Love and Rebellion/To my sister
TO MY SISTER.
✤ ✤ ✤
You were so fond, so proud, so true,
It did not seem Death dared touch you;
That he could lay his cold, white hand
Upon a form so pure and grand;
That he could pass earth's ugly things
And pitilessly break your wings.
And then you faced him with the smile
That made us love you all the while;
The old brave smile, you learned to know,
There, in the homeland, long ago;
And, dear, you pleaded not to die,
But he refused to pass you by.
He swept like lightning from above,
An eagle on a helpless dove;
And, as his talons clutched you 'round,
You fluttered, dove-like, to the ground;
More beautiful in your despair
Than anything in earth or air.
In breathless, strange, unbroken sleep,
He closed your eyes, so clear and deep;
He clasped in his your trembling hand,
And led you to an unknown land;
He wreathed your brow with poppies red,
And crowned you queen among the dead.
The great stars gleam, the roses wave
In silence o'er your ivied grave:
Asleep, amid our loved and best,
You in eternal slumber rest;
But, as the stars live in the dew,
So lives in love the soul of you.