The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sisters' Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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Title: The Sisters' Tragedy

Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Posting Date: July 30, 2008 [EBook #595]
Release Date: July, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY ***

Produced by Judith Boss

THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY
WITH OTHER POEMS,
LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. BY
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH

CONTENTS

THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY
THE LAST CAESAR
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
ALEC YEATON'S SON
AT THE FUNERAL OF A MINOR POET
BATUSCHKA
ACT V
TENNYSON
THE SHIPMAN'S TALE
"I VEX ME NOT WITH BROODING ON THE YEARS"
MONODY ON THE DEATH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS
INTERLUDES
ECHO-SONG
A MOOD
GUILIELMUS REX
"PILLARED ARCH AND SCULPTURED TOWER
THRENODY
SESTET
A TOUCH OF NATURE
MEMORY
"I'LL NOT CONFER WITH SORROW"
A DEDICATION
NO SONGS IN WINTER
"LIKE CRUSOE, WALKING BY THE LONELY STRAND
THE LETTER
SARGENT'S PORTRAIT OF EDWIN BOOTH AT "THE PLAYERS"
PAULINE PAVLOVNA
BAGATELLE.
CORYDON: A PASTORAL
AT A READING
THE MENU
AN ELECTIVE COURSE
L'EAU DORMANTE
THALIA
PALINODE
A PETITION

THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY

A. D. 1670

AGLAE, a widow
MURIEL, her unmarried sister.

IT happened once, in that brave land that lies
For half the twelvemonth wrapt in sombre skies,
Two sisters loved one man. He being dead,
Grief loosed the lips of her he had not wed,
And all the passion that through heavy years
Had masked in smiles unmasked itself in tears.
No purer love may mortals know than this,
The hidden love that guards another's bliss.
High in a turret's westward-facing room,
Whose painted window held the sunset's bloom,
The two together grieving, each to each
Unveiled her soul with sobs and broken speech.

Both still were young, in life's rich summer yet;
And one was dark, with tints of violet
In hair and eyes, and one was blond as she
Who rose--a second daybreak--from the sea,
Gold-tressed and azure-eyed. In that lone place,
Li