Page:Forget Me Not (1828).djvu/22

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
2
THE SISTER'S DREAM.
Yet if the glee of life's fresh budding years
In those pure aspects may no more be read,
Thence, too, hath sorrow melted—and the tears
Which o'er their mother's holy dust they shed
Are all effaced;—there earth hath left no sign,
Save its deep love, still touching every line:

But oh, more soft, more tender, breathing more
A thought of pity than in vanish'd days;
While hov'ring silently and brightly o'er
The lone one's head, they meet her spirit's gaze
With their immortal eyes, that seem to say,
"Yet, sister! yet we love thee—come away!"

'Twill fade, the radiant dream!—and will she not
Wake with more painful yearning at her heart?
Will not her home seem a yet lonelier spot,
Her tasks more sad, when those bright shadows part?
And the green Summer after them look dim,
And Sorrow's tone be in the birds' wild hymn?

But let her hope be strong! and let the dead
Visit her soul in Heaven's calm beauty still!
Be their names utter'd, be their memory spread
Yet round the place they never more may fill!
All is not over with earth's broken tie—
Where, where should sisters love, if not on high?

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.