Pike County Ballads and Other Poems

SISTER SAINT LUKE.

  She lived shut in by flowers and trees
  And shade of gentle bigotries.
  On this side lay the trackless sea,
  On that the great world's mystery;
  But all unseen and all unguessed
  They could not break upon her rest.
  The world's far splendours gleamed and flashed,
  Afar the wild seas foamed and dashed;
  But in her small, dull Paradise,
  Safe housed from rapture or surprise,
  Nor day nor night had power to fright
  The peace of God that filled her eyes.