University of Virginia Library

TWO SISTERS

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.