The Old Sheldon Ruins near Beaufort, SC

Hast been where the full-blossomed bay-tree is blowing,

With odours like Eden’s around? 

Hast seen where the broad-leaved palmetto is growing, 

     And wild vines are fringing the ground? 

Hast sat in the shade of catalpas, at noon, 

     To eat the cool gourds of their clime; 

Or slept where magnolias were screening the moon, 

     And the mocking-bird sung his sweet rhyme? 

And didst mark, in thy journey, at dew-dropping eve, 

     Some ruin peer high o’er thy way, 

With rooks wheeling round it, and ivy to weave 

     A mantle for turrets so gray? 

Did ye ask if some lord of the cavalier kind 

     Lived there, when the country was young? 

And burned not the blood of a Christian to find 

     How there the old prayer-bell had rung?

And did ye not glow, when they told ye—the Lord 

     Had dwelt in that thistle-grown pile; 

And that bones of old Christians were under its sward, 

     That once had knelt down in its aisle? 

And had ye no tear-drops your blushes to steep 

     When ye thought—o’er your country so broad, 

The bard seeks in vain for a mouldering heap 

     Save only these churches of God! 

Oh ye that shall pass by those ruins agen, 

     Go kneel in their alleys and pray, 

And not till their arches have echoed amen 

     Rise up, and fare on, in your way . 

Pray God that those aisles may be crowded once more, 

     Those altars surrounded and spread, 

While anthems and prayers are upsent as of yore, 

     As they take of the Chalice and Bread . 

Ay, pray on thy knees, that each old rural fane 

     They have left to the bat and the mole, 

May sound with the loud-pealing organ again, 

     And the full-swelling voice of the soul . 

Peradventure, when next thou shalt journey thereby, 

     Even-bells shall ring out on the air, 

And the dim-lighted windows reveal to thine eye 

     The snowy-robed pastor at prayer . 

Arthur Cleveland Coxe

"Desolations: Virginia Churches"