You're Sure You'd Haste to Martyrdom

                                  'You read of saints in ecstasies,
                                  in rosy bowers of prayer,
                                  You think it were your heart's delight
                                  to live among them there...

                                  You'd go to China willingly,
                                  to foreign lands you'd roam,
                                  but still you must have everything
                                  you want or like at home.

                                  You cannot bear a chilly breeze,
                                  an over-heated day,
                                  but you're sure you'd haste to martyrdom -
                                  Now, can you be astray.......?

                           

                     (from In Love with the Divine Outcast, by a Religious, Pellegrini, Australia, 1934)

                            Painting: James Tissot, Young Lady in a Boat