Classic Poem

Aid, Saint Teresa, chosen child of God,
Beauty of Carmel, ornament of Spain,
Teresa, ardent votary of pain,
Prepared to tread the pathway to be trod,

Girdled with meekness, with obedience shod,
Alike in tender heart and virile brain
Most fearful of delusion and its train,
With which the fiend so scatters men abroad;

Mistrusting self and worldly wisdom's worth,
Drastic and hardy, rising sheer above
Baulks which would desolate a common heart;
To suffer or to die addressed on Earth,
Behold in heaven the blessed counterpart:
Glory and consolation knit with love.