"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...MATERNITY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON READY TO KILL by CARL SANDBURG DEAR ELIZABETH: (FOR ELIZABETH DIFIORE) by KAREN SWENSON THE SONG FOR COLIN by SARA TEASDALE THE DEATH OF LEONIDAS by GEORGE CROLY WERE I BUT HIS OWN WIFE by ELLEN MARY PATRICK DOWNING |