FIRST SISTER WHEN dusk descends and dews begin She sees the forest ghostly fair, And, half in heaven, is drinking in The moonlit melancholy air: The sons of God have charge and care Her maiden grace from foes to keep, And Jesus sends her unaware A maiden sanctity of sleep. SECOND SISTER In dreams, in dreams, with sweet surprise I see the lord of all these things; From night and nought with eager eyes He comes, and in his coming sings: His gentle port is like a king's, His open face is free and fair, And lightly from his brow he flings The young abundance of his hair. FIRST SISTER Oh who hath watched her kneel to pray In hours forgetful of the sun? Or seen beneath the dome of day The hovering seraph seek the nun? Her weary years at last have won A life from life's confusion free: What else is this but heaven begun Pure peace and simple chastity? SECOND SISTER Oh never yet to mortal maid Such sad divine division came From all that stirs or makes afraid The gentle thoughts without a name; Through all that lives a sacred shame, A pulse of pleasant trouble, flows, And tips the daisy's tinge of flame, And blushes redder in the rose. FIRST SISTER From lifted head the golden hair Is soft and blowing in the breeze, And softly on her brows of prayer The summer-shadow flits and flees: Then parts a pathway thro' the trees, A vista sunlit and serene, And there and then it is she sees What none but such as she have seen. SECOND SISTER Oh if with him by lea and lawn I pressed but once the silvery sod, And scattered sparkles of the dawn From aster and from golden-rod, I would not tread where others trod, Nor dream as other maidens do, Nor more should need to ask of God, When God had brought me thereunto. |