| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | November 1 | | All-Saints’ Day | | By James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | | ONE feast, of holy days the crest, | |
| I, though no Churchman, love to keep, | |
| All-Saints,—the unknown good that rest | |
| In God’s still memory folded deep; | |
| The bravely dumb that did their deed, | 5 |
| And scorned to blot it with a name, | |
| Men of the plain heroic breed, | |
| That loved Heaven’s silence more than fame. | |
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| Such lived, not in the past alone, | |
| But thread to-day the unheeding street, | 10 |
| And stairs to Sin and Famine known | |
| Sing with the welcome of their feet; | |
| The den they enter grows a shrine, | |
| The grimy sash an oriel burns, | |
| Their cup of water warms like wine, | 15 |
| Their speech is filled from heavenly urns. | |
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| About their brows to me appears | |
| An aureole traced in tenderest light, | |
| The rainbow-gleam of smiles through tears | |
| In dying eyes, by them made bright, | 20 |
| Of souls that shivered on the edge | |
| Of that chill ford repassed no more, | |
| And in their mercy felt the pledge | |
| And sweetness of the farther shore. | | | | |
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