Brother Poems

"SISTER, sister, go to bed!
Go and rest your weary head."
Thus the prudent brother said.
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Brother, today I sit on the brick bench of the house,
where you make a bottomless emptiness.
I remember we used to play at this hour, and mama
caressed us: "But, sons..."
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He lies near to death
Dying in the dust
Broken and forgot.
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Full many a dreary hour have I past,
My brain bewildered, and my mind o'ercast
With heaviness; in seasons when I've thought
No spherey strains by me could e'er be caught
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Who was the villain
When it all began
Some fair-haired stranger
From a faraway land
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None lives for ever, brother, and
nothing lasts for long. Keep that in
mind and rejoice.
Our life is not the one old burden,
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There’s a mirror likeness between those two
shining, youthfully-fledged figures, though
one seems paler than the other and more austere,
I might even say more perfect, more distinguished,
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Many the wonders I this day have seen:
The sun, when first he kissed away the tears
That filled the eyes of Morn;—the laurelled peers
Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;—
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BROTHER of all, with generous hand,
Of thee, pondering on thee, as o'er thy tomb, I and my Soul,
A thought to launch in memory of thee,
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By ways remote and distant waters sped,
Brother, to thy sad grave-side am I come,
That I may give the last gifts to the dead,
And vainly parley with thine ashes dumb:
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O’Brother O’Brother, what have you done?
O’Brother O’Brother, you can’t escape the one
O’Brother O’Brother, have you not learned?
O’Brother O’Brother, you could’ve waited your turn
...