Felicia Hemans

“ My brother! oh! my brother! thou art gone, the true and brave,
And the haughty joy of victory hath died upon thy grave:
There are many round my throne to stand, and to march where I lead on;
There was one to love me in the world—my brother! thou art gone! ”

“ As by night the feast of victory was held within its walls;
And the conquerors filled the wine-cup high, after years of bright blood shed;
But their Lord, the King of Arragon, 'midst the triumph, wailed the dead. ”

“ Wake the heart's thrill at each familiar tone.
Blest be the harmonist, whose well-known lays
Revive life's morning dreams, when youth is fled,
And, fraught with images of other days,
Recall the loved, the absent, and the dead. ”

“ And of the hearts that here were linked by long remembered years,
Alas! the brother knows not now where fall the sister's tears!
One haply revels at the feast, while one may droop alone;
For broken is the household chain—the bright fire quenched and gone! ”

“ THE SONGS OF OUR FATHERS.
————————————"Sing aloud
Old songs, the precious music of the heart."
⁠Wordsworth.
Sing them upon the sunny hills,
When days are long and bright,
And the blue gleam of shining rills
Is loveliest to the sight. ”