Poem August 5, 1916 Issue

[Written for the Sentinel]

"Res Pulchrissimae"

GWENDOLYN THOMAS

WHAT are the very fairest things that be?
Asks a wise poet of the olden days.
Not gem, or sky, or temple high, or sea,
Or pearl, or rose, nor garden in which grows
A pear tree blossoming where sweet water flows:
The very fairest are God's laws, His ways.

But how shall my poor thoughts to God's be raised,—
Ah me, to very heaven? How shall I see
The laws that gentle poet rightly praised:
Their radiancies, their sweet felicities,
Their constancies surpassing all of these,—
Flower, gem, sky, garden, temple, wave, or tree?

I will have all sweet things now tell of Him,
When I behold their inmost beauty rare;
And they my feet shall lead, like cherubim,
Up the thought pathway, till all heaven is nigh.
For symbols slight when seen with Spirit's eye,
Can bring to one a glimpse of the All-fair.

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