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Pine,
Rose and Fleur de Lis
by
Susie Frances Harrison
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AT
STE SCHOLASTIQUE
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I.
The
faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek
We catch
in the light of the evening sun
At a casement in Ste. Scholastique.
By a profile perfect if hardly Greek
We are
not alone dismay’d, undone—
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faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek,
Do other travellers wistfully seek,
And
scholars some terrible risks have run
’Neath a casement in Ste. Scholastique.
The tint is so rich—the hair so sleek!
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As
the curtains move, the glimpse is won,
The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek!
Can it be, as they say, that in less than a week
That
black-hair’d nymph will pose as a nun
At a casement in Ste. Scholastique?
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That Nanon will merge into Marie meek?
If so,
pass on, and devoutly shun
The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek
At a casement in Ste. Scholastique.
II.
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil—they’re
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On
the country road, in the gas-lit town,
Anear and afar and everywhere.
When Nanon sets a spray in her hair,
Or pins
a rose on her homespun gown,
The World, the Flesh and the Devil are there!
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And no one escapes the triune snare,
Nor Faust,
nor Fool, nor King nor Clown.
Anear and afar and everywhere
They weave and whisper and never spare
Either
labouring man or man of renown.
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World, the Flesh and the Devil—they’re
Even within the wall four-square
Of Nanon’s
convent. They fume and frown
Anear and afar and everywhere!
Sweet soul! Hearken well to the oath you swear
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While
girl-like you grasp the coveted Crown,
For the World, the Flesh and the Devil—they’re
Anear, and afar, and everywhere.
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