THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN I Order is a lovely thing; On disarray it lays its wing, Lo-I will have thee in this place! All things that shine through thee appear That with angelic charity Revealest beauty where thou art, Sunken shapes of many a star II Ye stolid, homely, visible things, Truly ye are but seemings- Brazen pan and iron pot, Yellow brick and gray flag-stone Vessels of bright mystery. For ye do bear a shape, and so Though ye were made by man, I know An inner Spirit also made, And ye his breathings have obeyed. IV Shape, the strong and awful Spirit, He can alter and subdue. Matter, like a sacred cup. Into deep substance he reached, and lo Where ye were not, ye were; and so Out of useless nothing, ye Groaned and laughed and came to be. Wonderful uses, made for man, What are ye? Nor what I really do When I move and govern you. There is no small work unto God. A high angelic nature, Stature superb and bright completeness. Each act that he would have us do Of his plainest child he asks. And from his burning presence run He is an angel of all light. When I cleanse this earthen floor My spirit leaps to see Bright garments trailing over it, A cleanness made by me. Purger of all men's thoughts and ways, With labor do I sound Thy praise, Whoever makes a thing more bright, VI One time in the cool of dawn Angels came and worked with me. That they might do my common task. With garments whiter than the sun Of deep, remembered grace; That when I saw I cried-" Thou art When we are dancing round God's throne, How often thou art there. Beauties from thy hands have flown Work on, and cleanse thy iron pot." VII What are we? I know not. WHILE LOVELINESS GOES BY Sometimes when all the world seems grey and dun Amy Lowell Amy Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, February 9, 1874, of a long line of noted publicists and poets, the first colonist (a Percival Lowell) arriving in Newburyport in 1637. James Russell Lowell was a cousin of her grandfather; Abbott Lawrence, her mother's father, was minister to England; and Abbott Lawrence Lowell, her brother, is president of Harvard University. Miss Lowell obtained her early education through private tuition and travel abroad. These European journeys were the background upon which much of Miss Lowell's later work is unconsciously woven; her visits to France, Egypt, Turkey and |