Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/135

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THE LOWEST ROOM.
107
THE LOWEST ROOM.
LIKE flowers sequestered from the sun
And wind of summer, day by day
I dwindled paler, whilst my hair
  Showed the first tinge of grey."

Oh what is life, that we should live?
Or what is death, that we must die?
A bursting bubble is our life
  I also, what am I?"

"What is your grief? now tell me, sweet
That I may grieve," my sister said;
And stayed a white embroidering hand
  And raised a golden head:

Her tresses showed a richer mass,
Her eyes looked softer than my own,
Her figure had a statelier height,
  Her voice a tenderer tone.

"Some must be second and not first;
All cannot be the first of all:
Is not this, too, but vanity?
  I stumble like to fall