SubTitle("caps", "St. Eloi's Blessing ") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Clovis the King, proud of his golden thrones, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Granted our Saint broad lands, whereon he should ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Build cloisters, work in gold and precious stones ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And carve in silver as it might be wood,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And for God's glory—and the King's fair name—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Do miracles with metal and with flame.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So to the world's end, where long-hoarded pelf", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shone forth new-hallowed in the goldsmith's hand, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saint Eloi's craftsmen, as long since himself,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Were honored where they went in every land, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet still his heart was ever ours, and stayed ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Here in Limoges, the city that he made.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then all one night he knelt for us in prayer ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "At the high altar, suing for this grace,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That his fine art, in his true people's care, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Should ripen rich as in none other place, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And if gold fail, beauty to our desire", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Should we create, out of the earth and fire. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All secret work of dainty orfreny", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Couchet in jeweled paternes brightly quaint, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Balass and emeraut, sapphire, all should be ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Set in the triptych of the pictured saint,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or with new dreams of unwrought beauty haunted, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Blend in amail deep hues of light enchanted.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then vanished all the vision—Saint Eloi ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With trembling saw it swallowed up in night. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "None may escape the laws of grief or joy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And when the day is done, then fails the light. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet still he prayed—the dragon-darkness fled, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a new life dawned, risen from the dead. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Soft smoothness like a creamy petaled rose,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Rich roundness like the sun-filled apricot, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Gold garlands twisted by some wind that blows ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "From what strange land we craftsmen marvel not. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And in this porcelain cup (he said) shall pour", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Joy of life, joy of craft, forevermore.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>