<h2> A WINTER MINSTER </h2>
<p>(For Fr. C. L. O'Donnell)<br/></p>
<p>The interlacing trees<br/>
Arise in Gothic traceries,<br/>
As if a vast cathedral deep and dim;<br/>
And through the solemn atmosphere<br/>
The low winds hymn<br/>
Such thoughts as solitude will hear.<br/>
To lead your way across<br/>
Gray carpet aisles of moss<br/>
Unto the chantry stalls,<br/>
The sumach candelabra are alight;<br/>
Along the cloister walls,<br/>
Like chorister and acolyte,<br/>
The shrubs are vested white;<br/>
The dutiful monastic oak<br/>
In his gray-friar cloak<br/>
Keeps penitential ways<br/>
And solemn orisons of praise;<br/>
For beads upon the cincture-vine<br/>
Red berries warm with color shine,<br/>
And to their constant rosary<br/>
The bedesmen firs incline;<br/>
And fair as frescoes be<br/>
Among the shrines of Italy,<br/>
These lights and shadows are,<br/>
Impalpable in gray and green<br/>
Upon the hills afar<br/>
And the gold westering sun between.<br/>
The music! Hark!<br/>
Oh, an it be no rapturous lark,<br/>
Yet has the lesser chant<br/>
The blessedness of song.<br/>
The snowbird mendicant<br/>
Intones the antiphon—<br/>
Et laboremus nos;<br/>
<br/>
And all the grottoed aisles along,<br/>
Where servitors rejoice,<br/>
The chorused echoes run—<br/>
<br/>
Oremus nos.<br/>
<br/>
The inspiration of the breeze<br/>
Gives every reed a voice<br/>
From tenebrae and silences;<br/>
Over the valleys borne,<br/>
Come organ harmonies;<br/>
And when the low winds call,<br/>
The pines with miserere mourn<br/>
A requiem musical,<br/>
Softer than moonbeams fall<br/>
Across the starry oriels of night,<br/>
Flooding the azure round<br/>
With hushed delight<br/>
And sanctity of sound.<br/></p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"></SPAN></p>
<br/>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.