Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
III. WarBrother Jonathans Lament for Sister Caroline
Oliver Wendell Holmes (18091894)S
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!
We can never forget that our hearts have been one,—
Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty’s name,
From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame!
But we said: “She is hasty—she does not mean much.”
We have scowled when you uttered some turbulent threat;
But friendship still whispered: “Forgive and forget.”
Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold?
Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain
That her petulant children would sever in vain.
Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil,
Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their caves,
And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves:
Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last,
As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow
Roll mingled in peace in the valleys below.
Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!
There are battles with fate that can never be won!
The star-flowering banner must never be furled,
For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world!
Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof;
But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore,
Remember the pathway that leads to our door!