Sonnets from the Equestrian

I thought once how the narrator had sung

Of our sweet dream-land: "Once upon a time,

In an angelic land of love sublime,

There lived two regal sisters, old and young."

And, as I mused it in her piercing tongue,

Which with such silver-spoken words did chime,

As if with hot coals from Isaiah's time

It had been touched, with holy brilliance stung;

Remembered I the hours I had not kept,

The frauds I'd played on those who’d best loved me,

Their agonies through which I had but slept,

How large the debt I owed of sympathy;

And softly in despair of life I wept—

When ponies sweetly spoke: "Not thee, but We."