| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | May 15 | | Miss Nightingale | | By Alexander Smith (1830–1867) |
| | | | An English lady who went out to the Crimea during the war there and organized the hospital service. She was born on May 15, 1820. |
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HOW must the soldier’s tearful heart expand, | |
| Who from a long and obscure dream of pain,— | |
| His foeman’s frown imprinted on his brain,— | |
| Wakes to thy healing face and dewy hand! | |
| When this great noise hath rolled from off the land, | 5 |
| When all those fallen Englishmen of ours | |
| Have bloomed and faded in Crimean flowers, | |
| Thy perfect charity unsoiled shall stand. | |
| Some pitying student of a nobler age, | |
| Lingering o’er this year’s half-forgotten page, | 10 |
| Shall see its beauty smiling ever there; | |
| Surprised to tears his beating heart he stills, | |
| Like one who finds among Athenian hills | |
| A Temple like a lily white and fair. | | | |
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