To An Early Violet
What though your bed be frozen earth,
Your cloak the chilling blast.
What though no mate to cheer your path.
Your sky with gloom o’ercast.
What though if love itself doth fail,
Your fragrance strewed in vain.
What though if bad o’er good prevail,
And vice o’er virtue reign.
Change not your nature gentle bloom,
Oh violet sweet and pure,
But ever pour your sweet perfume
Unasked, unstinting, sure!
6-Jan-1896.
This was sent to Christine Greenstidel of Detroit.
She took her nun’s vows from Swamiji the summer before when studying under him at 1000 Islands.