To put new shingles on old roofs;
To give old women wadded skirts;
To treat premonitory coughs
With seasonable flannel shirts;
To soothe the stings of poverty
And keep the jackal from the door,—
These are the works that occupy
The Little Sister of the Poor.
She carries, everywhere she goes,
Kind words and...
Just ere the darkness is withdrawn,
In seasons of cold or heat,
Close to the boundary line of Dawn
These mystical brothers meet.
They clasp their weird and shadowy hands,
As they listen each to each,
But never a mortal understands
Their strange immortal speech.
From the French by Louisa Stuart Costello
’T IS done! a father, mother, gone,
A sister, brother, torn away,
My hope is now in God alone,
Whom heaven and earth alike obey.
Above, beneath, to him is known,—
The world’s wide compass is his own.
I love,—but in the world no more,
Nor in gay hall, or festal bower;
Not...
[March 25, 1861, South Carolina having adopted the Ordinance of Secession]
SHE has gone,—she has left us in passion and pride—
Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!
She has torn her own star from our firmament’s glow,
And turned on her brother the face of a foe!
O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
We can never forget that our...
Brother of Ingots — Ah Peru —
Empty the Hearts that purchased you —
—
Sister of Ophir —
Ah, Peru —
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you —
—
Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you.
