 | [Poems by Cary in] The poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary |  |
THE NOVICE OF ST. MARY'S.
FROM “THE MONASTERY” OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Dark in the shade of the mountains,
From a valley full of flowers,
Rose up, in the light of the setting sun,
St. Mary's chapel towers.
From a valley full of flowers,
Rose up, in the light of the setting sun,
St. Mary's chapel towers.
The bell of the old gray turret
Was tolling deep and slow,
And friars were telling their beads, and monks
Chanting their hymns below.
Was tolling deep and slow,
And friars were telling their beads, and monks
Chanting their hymns below.
But the breath of the silver censers,
As they swung in the twilight dim,
And the sacred hush as the beads were told,
And the chant of the solemn hymn;
As they swung in the twilight dim,
And the sacred hush as the beads were told,
And the chant of the solemn hymn;
91
And the golden light of the sunset
Might bear to the heart no joy,
Of one whose mantle of coarsest serge
Betokened a novice boy.
Might bear to the heart no joy,
Of one whose mantle of coarsest serge
Betokened a novice boy.
Pale was his brow, and dreamy,
And his bright locks yet unshorn:
He had but given his mother's smile
For the convent's gloom that morn.
And his bright locks yet unshorn:
He had but given his mother's smile
For the convent's gloom that morn.
O, why are his pale hands folded
In the chill of the cloister's gloom?
Why loses his cheek its roundness,
And his lip its rosy bloom?
In the chill of the cloister's gloom?
Why loses his cheek its roundness,
And his lip its rosy bloom?
Let Mary of Avenel answer,
As she sits in the twilight dim,
In the leafy shade of her garden bower
Does she wait for the convent hymn?
As she sits in the twilight dim,
In the leafy shade of her garden bower
Does she wait for the convent hymn?
No, her young heart softly trembles
From its even pulse of joy,
As she hears a step, but 't is not the step
Of St. Mary's Novice Boy!
From its even pulse of joy,
As she hears a step, but 't is not the step
Of St. Mary's Novice Boy!
| [Poems by Cary in] The poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary | |