Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838/The Devotee
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THE DEVOTEE.
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THE DEVOTEE.
VIGNETTE TITLE.
PRAYER on her lips—yet, while the maiden prayeth,
A human sorrow deepens in her eyes;
For e’en the very words of prayer she sayeth,
A sad and lingering memory supplies.
She leans beside the vault where sleeps her mother,
The tablet has her name upon the wall—
Her only parent, for she knew no other;
In losing whom, the orphan lost her all.
Young, very young, she is, but wholly vanished
Youth’s morning colours from her cheek are gone;
All gayer and all careless thoughts are banished
By the perpetual presence of but one.
And yet that sweet face is not all of sorrow,
It wears a softer and a higher mood;
And seemeth from the world within to borrow
A holy and a constant fortitude.
Early with every sabbath-morn returning,
You hear her light step up the chancel come,
She looketh all the week with tender yearning
To that old church which is to her a home.
For her own home is desolate and lonely,
Hers is the only seat beside the hearth,
Sad in its summer garden, as she only
Were the last wanderer on this weary earth.
But in that ancient church her heart grows stronger
With prayers that raise their earnest eyes above;
And in the presence of her God, no longer
Feels like an outcast from all hope and love.
Glorious the mighty anthem round her swelling,
Fills the rapt spirit, sacred and sublime;
Soon will for her unfold th’ immortal dwelling—
She waiteth patient, God’s appointed time.