On the Death of Her Brother, Francis I. Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615). V. Death and Bereavement. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. III. Sorrow and Consolation

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904.

V. Death and Bereavement

On the Death of Her Brother, Francis I.

Marguerite de Valois (1553–1615)

From the French by Louisa Stuart Costello

’T IS done! a father, mother, gone,
A sister, brother, torn away,
My hope is now in God alone,
Whom heaven and earth alike obey.
Above, beneath, to him is known,—	5
The world’s wide compass is his own.

I love,—but in the world no more,
Nor in gay hall, or festal bower;
Not the fair forms I prized before,—
But him, all beauty, wisdom, power,	10
My Saviour, who has cast a chain
On sin and ill, and woe and pain!

I from my memory have effaced
All former joys, all kindred, friends;
All honors that my station graced	15
I hold but snares that fortune sends:
Hence! joys by Christ at distance cast,
That we may be his own at last!