Palinode

The Sisters' Tragedy

by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Who is Lydia, pray, and who
Is Hypatia? Softly, dear,

Let me breathe it in your ear--
They are you, and only you.

And those other nameless two
Walking in Arcadian air--
She
that was so very fair?
She that had the twilight hair?--
They
were you, dear, only you.
If I speak of night or day,
Grace
of fern or bloom of grape,
Hanging cloud or fountain spray,

Gem or star or glistening dew,
Or of mythologic shape,

Psyche, Pyrrha, Daphne, say--
I mean you, dear, you, just you.