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,—

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,

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

I hold but snares that fortune sends:

Hence! joys by Christ at distance cast,

That we may be his own at last!