May Carols Part 17

Not that great love of thine, whose beams Transcended in their virtuous heat Those suns which melt the ice-bound streams, And make earth's pulses newly beat:--

It was not these that from the sky Drew down to thee the Eternal Word: He looked on thy humility; He knew thee, "Handmaid of thy Lord."

Let no one claim with thee a part; Let no one, Mary, name thy name, While, aping G.o.d, upon his heart Pride sits, a demon robed in flame.

Proud Vices, die! Where Sin has place Be Sin's familiar self-disgust.

Proud Virtues, doubly die; that Grace At last may burgeon from your dust.

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_Respexit Humilitatem._

XX.

Supreme among the things create Omnipotence revealed below, More swift than thought, more strong than fate, Such, such, Humility, art thou!

All strength beside is weakness. Might Belongs to G.o.d: and they alone, Self-emptied souls and seeming-slight, Are filled with G.o.d and share his throne.

O Mary! strong wert thou and meek; Thy meekness gave thee strength divine: Thyself in nothing didst thou seek; Therefore thy Maker made Him thine.

Through Pride our parents disobeyed; Rebellious Sense avenged the crime: The soul, the body's captive made, Became the branded thrall of time.

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With barrenness the earth was cursed; Inviolate she brought forth no more Her fruits, nor freely as at first:-- Thou cam'st, her Eden to restore!

Low breathes the wind upon the string; The harp, responsive, sounds in turn: Thus o'er thy Soul the Spirit's wing Creative pa.s.sed; and Christ was born.

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_"Sine Labe originali Concepta."_

XXI.

Met in a point [Footnote 7] the circles twain Of temporal and eternal things Embrace, close linked. Redemption's chain Drops thence to earth its myriad rings.

[Footnote 7: The Incarnation.]

In either circle, from of old, That point of meeting stood decreed;-- Twin mysteries cast in one deep mould, "The Woman," and "the Woman's Seed."

Mary, long ages ere thy birth Resplendent with Salvation's Sign, In thee a stainless hand the earth Put forth, to meet the Hand Divine!

First trophy of all-conquering Grace, First victory of that Blood all pure, Of man's once fair but fallen race Thou stood'st, the monument secure.

The Word made Flesh! the Way! the Door!

The link that dust with G.o.dhead blends!

Through Him the worlds their G.o.d adore:-- Through thee that G.o.d to man descends.

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_"Sine Labe originali Concepta."_

XXII.

A soul-like sound, subdued yet strong, A whispered music, mystery-rife, A sound like Eden airs among The branches of the Tree of Life--

At first no more than this; at last The voice of every land and clime, It swept o'er Earth, a clarion blast: Earth heard, and shook with joy sublime.

Mary! thy triumph was her own.

In thee she saw her prime restored: She saw ascend a spotless Throne For Him, her Saviour, and her Lord.

The Church had spoken. She that dwells Sun-clad with beatific light, From Truth's unvanquished citadels, From Sion's Apostolic height,

Had stretched her sceptred hands, and pressed The seal of Faith, defined and known, Upon that Truth till then confessed By Love's instinctive sense alone.

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XXIII.

Brow-bound with myrtle and with gold, Spring, sacred now from blasts and blights, Lifts in a firm, untrembling hold Her chalice of fulfilled delights.

Confirmed around her queenly lip The smile late wavering, on she moves; And seems through deepening tides to step Of steadier joys and larger loves.

The stony Ash itself relents, Into the blue embrace of May Sinking, like old impenitents Heart-touched at last; and, far away,

The long wave yearns along the coast With sob suppressed, like that which thrills (While o'er the altar mounts the Host) Some chapel on the Irish hills.

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_Corpus Christi._

XXIV.

Rejoice, O Mary! and be glad, Thou Church triumphant here below!

He cometh, in meekest emblems clad; Himself he cometh to bestow!

That body which thou gav'st, O Earth, He giveth back--that Flesh, that Blood; Born of the Altar's mystic birth; At once thy Worship and thy Food.

He who of old on Calvary bled On all thine altars lies to-day, A bloodless Sacrifice, but dread; The Lamb in heaven adored for aye.