Katharine Lee Bates - Furness Abbey lyrics

The treasure of the valley, red and tall They rise, those sandstone fragments, overgrown With fern and ivy and sweet blossom sown By pitying winds. From broken arch and wall The harebell glistens; nightshade thickets pall Bruised effigy and sunken altar-stone. What man rejected, Nature makes her own; Her comfort creeps where cross and pillar fall. Still sacred, though in lieu of white procession Of chanting monks, the mossy shafts look down On children's blithe-voiced play; though robins nest In sculptured angel-wing and carven crown; Perchance more sacred, for the heart's confession Lies bare to Him, the heart's eternal Quest.