1. Severe or stern in disposition or appearance; somber and grave. 2. Strict or severe in discipline; ascetic: a desert nomad's austere life. 3. Having no adornment or ornamentation.
This morning as I was getting ready for church, I thought about the poem by Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays." The last two lines are especially evocative: "What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?" And they're more meaningful the more you think about two of the words. Here I've provided the definition for one of them. Part 2 will define "offices."
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