Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
III. AdversityLondon Churches
Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (18091885)I
Before a large church door,
The congregation gathered,
And carriages a score,—
From one out stepped a lady
I oft had seen before.
And held a vinaigrette;
The sign of man’s redemption
Clear on the book was set,—
But above the cross there glistened
A golden Coronet.
The inner door flung wide;
Lightly, as up a ball-room,
Her footsteps seemed to glide,—
There might be good thoughts in her,
For all her evil pride.
Peeped wistfully within,
On whose wan face was graven
Life’s hardest discipline,—
The trace of the sad trinity
Of weakness, pain, and sin.
Where she could rest and pray;
With her worn garb contrasted
Each side in fair array,—
“God’s house holds no poor sinners,”
She sighed, and crept away.