Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
St. Laurence
By Bessie Rayner Parkes (18291925)S
Kissed by the southern wind perpetually.
Those who may care to make and keep my grave,
There, if they love me, they shall bury me.
By some old Catholic devoutly planned;
Over its belfry and its little porch
The ivy trickles down on either hand.
To me the loveliest time in all the year;
And he who lingers by the churchyard-wall,
He will not wonder why it seems so dear.
One whom I love well, who is far away,
A soul with which each tint would softly blend,
From flame-tipped russet to the tenderest gray.
By evil fate—such is—were doomed to part,
I should not struggle with this bitter world;—
Take me, St. Laurence, hide me where thou art!