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Lux parva di profundis clamat.-
Spark struck to wick, thus small flame passed,
Three candles upon the field,
Aura of streaming light they cast,
A golden disc on night's dark shield.
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Wind swept the snow from icy tarn,
Cleared mirrored votive altar,
Candles placed, her face cold and wan,
With this last task, would not falter.
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Shone on ice, each flame was doubled,
Each small light towards earth and sky,
Burned calm, by wind untroubled,
Beneath night's all watchful eye.
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But brighter still than e'er before,
Broad fields cloaked in pristine snow,
Gold upon white this starry night,
Yet no human eye shall know.
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While all around, hushed and still,
Quavered not one tiny flame,
Amid the stunning silence stood,
A woman rent with loss and shame.
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With white wool clad from neck to toe,
A plain shift so unadorned,
It seemed her form was wrought from snow,
Faint as hint of coming morn.
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The whole nightlong her vigil kept,
Nearby the candles dying,
In golden light she knelt and wept,
No prayer could ease her crying.
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Her village razed that very morn,
By henchmen with sword and spear,
Away from the harrowing foe
She fled, in panic and fear.
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By fire razed 'mid anguished cries,
At dawn by henchmen vile,
A cold and brutal wind did rise,
Bleak snow fell all the while.
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In yon sod roofed cellar she hid,
'Neath the earth from flame was spared,
There trembled 'til the tumult passed,
And with it, all for which she cared.
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Gathered tapers, striker and flint,
Then walked off into the storm.
Climbed high all day the snowy heath,
For her sweet lost loves to mourn.
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Would mark her eighteenth year this day,
Had never been hardened to war.
Thus with the dawn she ran away,
Saved herself and nothing more.
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Still in cradle and one bed small,
Left her two wee sons dreaming,
As she speed from her hearth and hall.
'mid death and mothers screaming.
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Sole gust blew o'er the crystal snow,
And snuffed the three faint flames,
One small light for each child gone,
And one for the life that wanes.
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As candles died with fading night
Her frail spirit ebbed away.
So she passed with the coming light,
At the dawning of new day.
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With nascent morn the wind arose,
And blew the fine snow flying,
Buried the tarn and bitter woes,
Beneath drifts her body lying.