Classic Poem

( SANTA BARBARA .)

O H peace profound!
Within the wall's enclosing circuit
Forever reigns eternal silence.
No sound to break the perfect stillness,
Save the soft notes of gratulation
The cooing doves together murmur;
Or the swift flapping of their pinions
As down they come from Mission towers.
Here grows the cypress, ever mourning,
And here a stretch of waving grasses,
With tender springtime flowers commingled.
And here the pepper trees low drooping,
And there, against the Mission buttress,
An olive-tree of softest color
Bends low o'er San Antonio's chapel.
Few graves there are, and little tended,
But high against the wall there clamber
Green ivy, and the strong rose bushes,
Whereon the roses now are blooming,
Pale roses, each a double handful,
And soft pink roses, full of sweetness.
And over all rise up the towers —
The towers crowned with holy crosses —
And far beyond the wall that bounds us,
The blue and purple sea outstretches,
Far — far — illimitable distance!
Oh perfect stillness, mighty silence,
Truly here the dead are blessed;
Here where roses bloom above them,
And the doves alone give utterance
To the peace that fills the air.