Poem by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Second Series. 15. Gertrude and Gulielma, sister-twins

Gertrude and Gulielma, sister-twins,
Dwelt in the valley at the farmhouse old;
Nor grief had touched their locks of dark and gold
Nor dimmed the fragrant whiteness of their skins:
Both beautiful, and one in height and mould;
Yet one had loveliness which the spirit wins
To other worlds: eyes, forehead, smile and all,
More softly serious than the twilight's fall.
The other -- can I e'er forget the day
When, stealing from a laughing group away,
To muse with absent eye and motion slow,
Her beauty fell upon me like a blow? --
Gertrude! with red flowerlip, and silk black hair!
Yet Gulielma was by far more fair.

1. First Series. 6. Not sometimes, but to him that heeds the whole
2. First Series. 27. So to the mind long brooding but on it
3. Third Series. 4. Thin little leaves of wood fern, ribbed and toothed
4. Second Series. 1. That boy, the farmer said, with hazel wand
5. First Series. 5. And so the day drops by, the horizon draws

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