"SISTER, sweet sister! let me weep awhile! Bear with me -- give the sudden passion way! Thoughts of our own lost home, our sunny isle, Come, as a wind that o'er a reed hath sway; Till my heart dies with yearnings and sick fears! Oh! could my life melt from me in these tears! "Our father's voice, our mother's gentle eye, Our brother's bounding step -- where are they, where? Desolate, desolate our chambers lie! How hast thou won thy spirit from despair? O'er mine swift shadows, gusts of terror, sweep; -- I sink away -- bear with me -- let me weep!" "Yes! weep, my sister! weep, till from thy heart The weight flow forth in tears! yet sink thou not; I bind my sorrow to a lofty part, For thee, my gentle one! our orphan lot To meet in quenchless trust; my soul is strong -- Thou, too, wilt rise in holy might ere long. "A breath of our free heavens and noble sires, A memory of our old victorious dead, -- These mantle me with power! and though their fires In a frail censer briefly may be shed, Yet shall they light us onward, side by side; Have the wild birds, and have not we, a guide? "Cheer, then, beloved! on whose meek brow is set Our mother's image -- in whose voice a tone, A faint sweet sound of hers is lingering yet, An echo of our childhood's music gone; -- Cheer thee! thy sister's heart and faith are high; Our path is one -- with thee I live and die!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OF TREASON by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS WORDLY WISE (5) by MOTHER GOOSE ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON by ALFRED TENNYSON THE HIGHER PANTHEISM by ALFRED TENNYSON ODE TO DUTY by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE SORROW OF LOVE (1) by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 21. 'TIS CONSTANCY THAT GAINS THE PRIZE by PHILIP AYRES CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 3. OF CONTENTMENT by WILLIAM BASSE |