Love for a Brother

The sun sank down behind the gold-flower’d hill; The warriors from the fight approach the shore: There stood young George’s wife, serene and still: She counted all the heroes o’er and o’er, And found not those she loved—though they were three:— Her husband, George; her marriage friend, another, Who late had led the marriage revelry; The third, her best-beloved, her only brother.

Her husband, he was dead; she rent her hair For him.—Her friend was gone,—for him she tore Her cheeks.—Her only brother was not there: For him she pluck’d her eye-balls from their bed. Her hair grew forth as lovely as before; Upon her cheeks her former beauties spread; But nothing could her perish’d sight restore: Nought heals the heart that mourns a brother dead.