“The Vaudois Teacher” | POEM of the week

by John Greenleaf Whittier

"O LADY fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and rare,—

The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's queen might wear;

And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant light they vie;

I have brought them with me a weary way,—will my gentle lady buy?"

The lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and clustering curls

Which veiled her brow, as she bent to view his silks and glittering pearls;

And she placed their price in the old man's hand, and lightly turned away,

But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call,—"My gentle lady, stay!"

"O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer lustre flings,
Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown on the lofty brow of kings;
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall not decay,
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing on thy way!"

The lady glanced at the mirroring steel where her form of grace was seen,
Where her eye shone clear, and her dark locks waved their clasping pearls between;

"Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveller gray and old,

And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page shall count thy gold."

The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, as a small and meagre book,

Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his folding robe he took!
"Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it prove as such to thee!
Nay, keep thy gold—I ask it not, for the word of God is free!"

The hoary traveller went his way, but the gift he left behind

Hath had its pure and perfect work on that high-born maiden's mind,

And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the lowliness of truth,

And given her human heart to God in its beautiful hour of youth!

And she hath left the gray old halls, where an evil faith had power,

The courtly knights of her father's train, and the maidens of her bower;
And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales by lordly feet untrod,

Where the poor and needy of earth are rich in the perfect love of God!

(spacing modernized)