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 ORANGE PICKER by DAVID IGNATOW THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE; A FRAGMENT by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE CONFLICT by CECIL DAY LEWIS THE STEAM-ENGINE: CANTO 10. THE RAILWAY BOOM, 1845 by T. BAKER IN DEFENSE OF YOUTH by ROBBINS WOLCOTT BARSTOW INLAND SEA by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 42. FAREWELL TO JULIET (4) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |