 | To Elizabeth Barrett Browning and other verses |  |
10
MY SISTER ELIZABETH
Is there a day or night,
One, when the vision of my earliest friend,
Robed in her own pure light,
Fails on my weary vigils to descend?
One, when the vision of my earliest friend,
Robed in her own pure light,
Fails on my weary vigils to descend?
Sometimes she may appear
Before the expectant schoolroom, when the chimes
Sing blithely “dinner near” . .
And in a darker, sadder scene sometimes.
Before the expectant schoolroom, when the chimes
Sing blithely “dinner near” . .
And in a darker, sadder scene sometimes.
The lonely widow's door
Knows by long use what step is on the sill;
It opens, as before
Year after year . . pain flies, and moans are still.
Knows by long use what step is on the sill;
It opens, as before
Year after year . . pain flies, and moans are still.
And then to walks at home
From age's griefs and childhood's games we pass,
Where, gloom o'erhanging gloom,
The stern old cedar waves away the grass.
From age's griefs and childhood's games we pass,
Where, gloom o'erhanging gloom,
The stern old cedar waves away the grass.
11
Thou, too, my cistus, thou
Whose one day flowers in my best books lie spred,
Deserted, long ere now,
With none to prop thee, side by side, art dead.
Whose one day flowers in my best books lie spred,
Deserted, long ere now,
With none to prop thee, side by side, art dead.
Oct. 1, 1854.
| To Elizabeth Barrett Browning and other verses | |