C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Margaret Deland (1857–1945)

MY sweet maid Rosemary—

(Her gown it is so plain

E’en Vanity,

Dressed thus, could not be vain!)—

Doth preach to me,

When this my life doth seem

All small and mean,

And full of briers to be;

For in the rain or sun,

Cloaked all in modest gray,

This garden nun

Doth stand as though to pray!

Content, she never heeds

If flaunting Poppy scorns,

Nor marks that weeds

Do tear her gown with thorns;

She tells her beads,

And lives her life with joy,

Her one employ

To fill some small, sweet needs!