The Priest and The Maiden

BENEDICTE ! child of sin, I have come thy heart to win From the gay and careless world, That thy thoughts may all be furled 'Round the banner-staff of Heaven, And thy soul to God be given. Yonder, 'neath our convent's dome, Waits for thee a peaceful home ; There are relics, saints and shrines, Sacred lore and mystic lines; There the holy sister-band Wait to take thee by the hand. Leave thy childish, aimless life, Nerve thee for the spirit's strife; Leave thy vain and thoughtless friends, Seek the path that heavenward tends.

O, no ! holy father, I still must be, As I ever have been, unchecked and free; For I love, with a love that never will fade, All the wonderful things that God has made: The broad old fields where the wild flowers The deep ravines where the young brooks flow; The stern old rocks and the solemn trees, And the playful, wandering and whispering breeze: And the birds and the stars, and the tempests wild: I love them all, for I'm Nature's child; And the friends that I love are ever true, And I cannot leave them to go with you, In the joyousness of my budding bloom, To immure myself in a living tomb. There is one, with a dark and thoughtful eye, Who is to all others a mystery; But his soul is to me an open book, And I read his mood in his slightest look; And shutting me up in your convent gray Would be taking the light of his life away, And I never should kneel in my cloister dim, But my thoughts would be far away with him ; Nor the vesper-bell ever strike my ear, But his low, deep voice I should list to hear, Saying, 'Lora, come now to our altar-tree,— Lora, dear Lora, come worship with me.' I know I'm a wicked and wayward child, But there are a thousand voices mild, In the streamlet and flowers, in the forest and air, That go up each moment in praise and prayer, And the children who love them remembered are; And each brings an answer of peace from Heaven, And each one whispers, 'Thou art forgiven.' O, no! holy father, I still must be, As I ever have been, unchecked and free!"