Our Lady of the Snows

Far from the world, far from delight,Distinguishing not day from night;Vowed to one sacrifice of allThe happy things, that men befall;Pleading one sacrifice, beforeWhom sun and sea and wind adore;Far from earth's comfort, far away,We cry to God, we cry and prayFor men, who have the common day.Dance, merry world! and sing: but we,Hearing, remember Calvary:Get gold, and thrive you! but the sunOnce paled; and the centurionSaid: This dead man was God's own Son.Think you, we shrink from common toil,Works of the mart, works of the soil;That, prisoners of strong despair,We breathe this melancholy air;Forgetting the dear calls of race,And bonds of house, and ties of place;That, cowards, from the field we turn,And heavenward, in our weakness, yearn?Unjust! unkind! while you despiseOur lonely years, our mournful cries:You are the happier for our prayer;The guerdon of our souls, you share.Not in such feebleness of heart,We play our solitary part;Not fugitives of battle, weHide from the world, and let things be:But rather, looking over earth,Between the bounds of death and birth;And sad at heart, for sorrow and sin,We wondered, where might help begin.And on our wonder came God's choice,A sudden light, a clarion voice,Clearing the dark, and sounding clear:And we obeyed: behold us, here!In prison bound, but with your chains:Sufferers, but of alien pains.Merry the world, and thrives apace,Each in his customary place:Sailors upon the carrying sea,Shepherds upon the pasture lea,And merchants of the town; and they,Who march to death, the fighting way;And there are lovers in the spring,With those, who dance, and those, who sing:The commonwealth of every day.Eastward and westward, far away.Once the sun paled; once cried aloudThe Roman, from beneath the cloud:This day the Son of God is dead!Yet heed men, what the Roman said?They heed not: we then heed for them,The mindless of Jerusalem;Careless, they live and die: but weCare, in their stead, for Calvary.O joyous men and women! strong,To urge the wheel of life along,With strenuous arm, and cheerful strain,And wisdom of laborious brain:We give our life, our heart, our breath,That you may live to conquer death;That, past your tomb, with souls in health,Joy may be yours, and blessed wealth;Through vigils of the painful night,Our spirits with your tempters fight:For you, for you, we live alone,Where no joy comes, where cold winds moan:Nor friends have we, nor have we foes;Our Queen is of the lonely Snows.Ah! and sometimes, our prayers between,Come sudden thoughts of what hath been:Dreams! And from dreams, once more we fallTo prayer: God save, Christ keep, them all.And thou, who knowest not these things,Hearken, what news our message brings!Our toils, thy joy of life forgot:Our lives of prayer forget thee not.