Classic Poem

My Sister! through how many trying scenes
We two have past in long long years gone by,
Even yet though half a life time intervenes
I cannot think of them without a sigh.

Since thine unconscious infant lips were prest
First by a brother's boyish, bashful kiss,
'Till now when he, life-weary longs for rest,
And even thy hopes seek better worlds than this:

What has been done and suffered—felt and thought
In this long, dismal, dark abyss of life,
Where troubled spirits toil on, overwrought,
Amid temptation, sorrow, sin and strife.

How many of the loved and mourned have gone
How many joys and hopes of youth have fled—
How few of all the friends who linger on
Replace the lost—the changed—the cold—the dead.

Yet Hope is left! … One hope—the best—the last—
Though we plod on o'er thorns unto the grave
However long the day, to come—or past—
Our Sun at length will sleep beneath the wave.

Forever? … No! … The Ave's evening chime
That strikes the traveller's ear as day-light dies
Although it seems to mourn departed Time
Tells too of Life Eternal in the skies!