Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
The Return to Paraclete
By Louisa Stuart Costello (17991870)
F
Driven forth a fugitive, forlorn,
When I beheld the world again,
And shared its pity and its scorn,
Through weary paths unknown and rude;
Nor knew where he, so sadly loved,
Had fled to awful solitude.
Fate, vainly lenient, bade us meet,
Resistless victims of its will!
And led my steps to Paraclete.
To us thy holy cells resigned;
And there I strove to teach my breast
The calm its weakness could not find.
Have twice ten years—all winter—fled,
And now—thou crav’st of me a tomb!
And now—I wake to see thee dead!
Hast thou not passed a life of care?
And could religion’s power bestow
One charm to still my long despair!
Contemned, pursued, opprest no more—
For thee the world’s loud surges cease,
Thy bark has reached a tranquil shore.
Great through all time thy name shall be;
While Eloïse thy dust shall guard,
And die, as she has lived, for thee!