Poems by Hartley Coleridge With a Memoir of his Life by his Brother. In Two Volumes |
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ON A PICTURE OF A VERY YOUNG NUN,
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 | Poems by Hartley Coleridge |  |
169
ON A PICTURE OF A VERY YOUNG NUN,
NOT READING A DEVOTIONAL BOOK, AND NOT CONTEMPLATING A CRUCIFIX PLACED BESIDE HER.
So young, too young, consign'd to cloistral shade,Untimely wedded,—wedded, yet a maid;
And hast thou left no thought, no wish behind,
No sweet employment for the wandering wind,
Who would be proud to waft a sigh from thee,
Sweeter than aught he steals in Araby?
Thou wert immured, poor maiden, as I guess,
In the blank childhood of thy simpleness;
Too young to doubt, too pure to be ashamed,
Thou gavest to God what God had never claim'd,
And didst unweeting sign away thine all
Of earthly good,—a guiltless prodigal.
The large reversion of thine unborn love
Was sold to purchase an estate above.
Yet by thy hands, upon thy bosom prest,
I think, indeed, thou art not quite at rest;
That Christ that hangs upon the sculptured cross
Is not the Jesus to redeem thy loss;
170
Convince thee that the world is false and vain.
E'en now there is a something at thy heart
That would be off, but may not, dare not, start;
Yes, yes! thy face, thine eyes, thy closed lips, prove
Thou wert intended to be loved and love.
Poor maiden! victim of the vilest craft
At which e'er Moloch grinn'd or Belial laugh'd,
May all thy aimless wishes be forgiven,
And all thy sighs be register'd in Heaven,
And God his mercy and his love impart
To what thou should'st have been, and what thou art!
| Poems by Hartley Coleridge | |