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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EXCHANGE by MARY DOROTHY ANN

First Line: I AM ALL THINE, BELOVED, FOR
Last Line: THE BREAD AND WINE.
Subject(s): NUNS;

I am all Thine, Beloved, for
I come
Unbound and free;
Now I am stripped of everything
I love
To love but Thee;
Of everything, and yet, my Lord,
I have
Fair memory.

The wide world is my home; but once
I knew
A garden close,
And sheltering walls encircled by
The press
Of rambling rose.
In every soul that I may help
My heart
A new home knows.

And once when all my life was young
I dreamt
Of little feet,
And tiny hands and rosy mouth;
Ah! Lord,
Those dreams were sweet!
To-day a thousand little hands
Await
My love to meet.

And in this dream of yesterday,
The whole
Wide world was mine.
I held it close against my heart;
But now
A love divine
Has given more than life can give,
Himself,
The Bread and Wine.



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