My sister was a sinner: She wore a crimson cloak; She slept against her lover's breast Beneath the meadow oak. The oak spread friendly boughs apart To let the stars look in -- And not a single star was shocked To see those lovers sin. My sister was a sinner: She walked in silver shoes; She danced and kissed the nights away With any lad she'd choose. My sister died at twenty-one -- They say: "The good die young" -- They, that strange perennial race With lies upon the tongue. I, who am conscientious And meekly go the way My mother and the parson taught, Respectable in gray With sturdy patterns dun or black That never learned the ways Of winding paths through starlit woods Or a cotillion maze; I, no doubt, shall live to see My full three-score-and-ten -- Still wondering what life's about -- Who? What? How? Where? and When? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NEGRO DANCERS by CLAUDE MCKAY THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1852 by ALFRED TENNYSON BEAUTY OF NATURE by HENRY ALFORD A CHARACTER OF HIS FRIEND, W.B. ESQ by PHILIP AYRES THESEUS, SELECTION by BACCHYLIDES |