Sis. Caroline Peart

I was a boy then Betwixt conforming and transforming The ways of men I met in you virtue most disharming The pious thought Bright patience caught The kindly words, and tender deeds Of love: they sear On me deep impressions, like seeds Making deep roots here Like rivers trenching and cleansing all Hence my poem's tear That such a golden leaf should ever fall, You, no more there? Those college days still Like bright canvas painted by memory Halls of delight fill When we tell anecdotes of life and history And in them all My heart is entralled A lady sits amidst the squalor of time, she Circled in kindness From her children's eyes, exudes a beauty That lights all dimness And causes her husband engorged with joy To praise God loudly While she prays, reads, or sings with no alloy Of earth's misery. In your presence there I fell in love, and called you mother softly And held God dear In such a common place a tree of beauty Sheltering us then Grace and love blend In you, aged and ailing in church long last Did not retire Nor tell a close of door upon the happy past Jew told me, later That you are gone, I wept the ignorance of it And here suffer That I did not a quiet moment by you then sit Love to render.