Certes, je sortirai quant a'   moi satisfait D'un monde o  u' l'action n'est pas la soeur du re"  ve. Indeed, for my part, I shall be happy to leave A world where action is not sister to the dream.

-Baudelaire, Charles
  Les Fleurs du mal,'Le Reniement de Saint-Pierre'.

   Bless you, Sister. May all your sons be bishops!

-Behan, Brendan Francis
  Addressing a nursing nun taking his pulse shortly before he died.  Attributed.

   A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Song of Solomon 4:12.

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Luke10:40^2.

Then gently scan your brother Man, Still gentler sister Woman; Tho'they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human.

-Burns, Robert
  'Address to the Unco Guid, or the Rigidly Righteous', stanza 7.

Your sister isgiven to government.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^1  Joe Gargery. Great Expectations, ch.7.

Bene veniat soror mea mors. Welcome, my sister Death.

-Franklin, Benjamin
  Last words. Quoted in Thomas of Celano Life of St Francis (c.1245), bk.2, ch.163.

L'Angleterre toujours sera s½ur de la France. England will always be the sister of France.

-Hugo,Victor Marie
  Cromwell, act 2, sc.2.

I am the ugliest fairy in the world, and I shall be till people behave themselves as they ought to do. And then I shall grow as handsome as my sister†Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby.

-Kingsley, Charles
  Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid. The Water Babies, ch.5.

Never praise a sister to a sister, in the hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  Plain Tales from the Hills,'False Dawn'.

   The third sister, Morgan le Fey, was put to scole in a nonnery, and ther she lerned so moche that she was a grete clerke of nygromancye.

-Malory, SirThomas   d.1471
c.1470  Morte d'Arthur, bk.1, ch.2.

Je n'ai plus ni pe'  re, ni me'  re, Ni s½ur, ni fre'  re Sinon Dieu seul auquel j'espe'  re. I no longer have a father, nor a mother, Nor a sister, nor a brother. I only have God to trust in. 549

-Marguerite d'Angoule"  me
  Cantique spirituel.

Fair quiet, have I found thee here, And Innocence thy Sister dear! Mistaken long, I sought you then In busy companies of men.

-Marvell, Andrew
c.1650^1652  'The Garden' (published1681).

'O say, Shall we no voluntary bars Set to our drift? I, Sister of the Stars, And Thou, my glorious, course-compelling Day!'

-Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton
  To the Unknown Eros, bk.2, no.2,'The Contract'.

Sir, there isno Levitical degreesbetween nations, and on this occasion I can see neither sin nor shame in marrying our own sister.

-Roche, Sir Boyle
c.1800  Debate on theAct of Union between Great Britain and Ireland, Irish Houseof Commons, quotedin SirJonahBarrington Personal Sketches and Recollections of his ownTimes (1827).

For there is no friend like a sister In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands.

-Rossetti, Christina Georgina
 Goblin Market and Other Poems,'Goblin Market'.

Asked by the chairmantheusual question: 'Iunderstand, Mr Strachey, that you have a conscientious objection to war?' hereplied (inhis curiousfalsettovoice),'Ohno, not at all, only to this war.'Better thanthiswashisreply tothe chairman's other stock question, which had previously never failed to embarrass the claimant.'Tell me, Mr Strachey, what would youdoif yousawa Germansoldier trying to violate your sister?' With an air of noble virtue: 'I would try to get between them.'

-Strachey, (Giles) Lytton
On his appearance before a military tribunal, in Robert Graves GoodbyeToAllThat (1929), ch.23.

Swallow, my sister,O sister swallow, How can thine heart be full of the spring? A thousand summers are over and dead. What hast thou found in the spring to follow? What hast thou found in thine heart to sing? What wilt thou do when the summer is shed?

-Swinburne, Algernon Charles
  'Itylus'.

Even so for me a vision sanctified The sway of death; long ere my eyes had seen Thy countenanceöthe still rapture of thy mienö When thou, dear Sister! wert become death's bride: No trace of pain or languor could abide That changeöage on thy brow was smoothedöthy cold Wan cheek at once was privileged to unfold A loveliness to living youth denied. Oh! if within me hope should e'er decline, The lamp of faith, lost Friend! too faintly burn; The may that heaven-revealing smile of thine, The bright assurance, visibly return: And let my spirit in that power divine Rejoice, as, through that power, it ceased to mourn.

-Wordsworth,William
  'November1836', complete poem (published1837).

The easy Eden-dreamtime then in a country of birds and trees made me your shadow-sister, child, dark girl I couldn't play with.

-McKinney
  A Human Pattern,'Two Dreamtimes', stanza14.The poem is dedicated to KathWalker (now Oodgeroo Noonuccal).