[Editor: This poem by Agnes L. Storrie was published in Poems, 1909.]
Sursum Corda.
There came one softly to me in the night
And said “Why hast thou left me long alone?
In all thy lovely meadows is there sown
One immortelle? Hast marked in eagles’ flight
One wing that pierced the blue, or has thy sight
Caught even once a smile so fearless grown
That tears might never quench it? Hast thou known
One voice that Silence claims not as her right?
Oh! wherefore waste thy soul for such as these
When I await thee? When this hand is thine
Wilt cling to shadows? Wherefore drink the lees
When at thy very lips I pour forth wine?
Oh piteous one ! I only am. In me
Thy meaning lies, and thy reality.”
Source:
Agnes L. Storrie. Poems, J. W. Kettlewell, Sydney, 1909, page 240
Editor’s notes:
immortelle = (French) the feminine of “immortel” (immortal); a plant that retains its colour when dried (known as an “everlasting flower”), particularly of the family Asteraceae
lees = the sediment of wine in a barrel; dregs found in a cask; also used to refer to dregs in a general context
Sursum Corda = (Latin) “Lift up your hearts” (literally, “Hearts lifted”); from the opening section of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer in the liturgies of the Christian Church, believed to date back to at least the third century
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