Poems (Ford)/Saint Martin's

SAINT MARTIN'S.
[The Ursuline Academy, Brown County, Ohio.]

Sweet, happy spot, where holy peace forever
Like a pure spirit sits with folded wings,
Where Virtue's radiant, ever-blooming flowers
Are watered by Religion's crystal springs,
Thou seemest in thy calm and quiet beauty
From earth's wild strifes and sins and sorrows free;
Thou sittest throned amid thy broad green wood lands—
A sunny island in an emerald sea.

Apart from all the gay world's gilded pleasures,
Brave, patient spirits in thy walls abide,
Walking in toil and prayer and self-denial
The lowly pathway of the Crucified;
And many a young heart, nurtured by their kindness,
Will think of them and thee when distant far,
And look back to thy altar-lamp's pale shining,
As once the shepherds looked to Bethlehem's star.

Some of my brightest, happiest days have glided
In thy still shades, like streams of sunshine, by;
And to my heart thou wilt be linked forever
By memories that can not fade or die;
The great and true and noble hearts thou holdest,
The precious lessons and the words of cheer,
Of gentleness and hope and patient kindness,
Heard in thy walls, will make thee ever dear.

In the dim years that yet, perchance, await me,
When mingling with the great world's toil and strife,
I'll look back to the time when first I saw thee,
As to the dawning of a better life.
God's blessing rest on thine and thee forever,
Fair dwelling-place of purity and truth;
And mayst thou be, as now, in after ages,
The home of virtue and the guide of youth.