Avalanches

O HEART that on Love’s sunny heights dost dwell,
And joy unquestioning, by day, by night,
Serene in trust because the skies are bright,
Listen to what all Alpine records tell
Of days on which the avalanches fell:
Not days of storm, when men were pale with fright,
And watched the Hills with anxious, straining sight,
And heard in every sound a note of knell,
But when in heavens still and blue and clear
The sun rode high! Those were the hours to fear.
And so the monks of San Bernard to-day, —
May the Lord count their souls and hold them dear, —
When skies are cloudless, in their convent stay,
And for the souls of lost and dying pray!