Lament of Sister Dearest

Alas! mine heart is wracked with rue, For my fair sister yond I knew. A tender maid, in youth's soft bloom, Hath fled to dwell in yonder tomb.

Oh cruel fates, why thus did snatch The gentle soul I couldst not catch? Her laughter now is but a wraith, Lost to night’s untimely scathe.

O sister sweet, where didst thou stray, When darkness stole thy light away? And bade thee, sore, with tears to drown, To take thy leave, to cast thee down?

Did none but shadows heed thy cry, When thou, alone, didst pine to die? Oh would that I had heard thy call, Ere thou didst from the mortal fall.

For thou, in pain, no solace found, Nor earthly love could thee unbound. The world was cold, too bleak, unkind, And broke the light within thy mind.

Woe! Woe unto this bitter fate, That cruel despair should ope the gate, And lead thee to that silent shore, Where I may touch thy hand no more.

Thy smile hath wither'd from the morn, And all mine heart with grief is torn. Oh sister dear, why didst thou part, And leave me lone with shattered heart?

Would that I might thy soul restore, Or stay thee from Death’s hollow door. But now, in dust and dark confin’d, Thou leav’st my world so bare, so blind.

Oh cruel fate, to sunder thus, The bond 'twixt thee and all of us. Rest thee now, in sleep's embrace, Till dawns again thy gentle grace.