Page:Florence Earle Coates Mine and Thine 1904 136.jpg



spirit is to France a living spring

From which to draw deep draughts of life. Today,—

As when a peasant girl she led the way

Victorious to Rheims and crowned the King,—

High and heroic thoughts about her cling,

And sacrificial faiths as pure as they,

Moving the land she loved, with gentle sway,

To be, for love of her, a better thing!

Was she unhappy? No: her radiant youth

Burned, like a meteor, on to swift eclipse;