For a Young Nun

For a Young Nun was first published in Tomorrow in March 1966. This short lyric of twelve lines, divided into three quatrains, portrays a young woman in Holy Orders:

A wave of Christ’s blood has washed

The selfishness all out of you.

The nun is confined to ‘bead-clicked corridors’ where she meditates. The final quatrain of the poem is exquisite:

Cloistered from traffic, queues and dins,

From anger in the market-place,

You draw down veils and turn your face

Where noises end and love begins.