Unica. XIX. WHILE all the breathless woods aloof One note for her! Deep streams run smooth: O what a depth of loving truth In thy divine contentment dwells! All day, with down-dropt lids, I sat, Methought, not English hills, he shone. Back to the ark, the waters o'er, The primal dove pursued her flight: I heard her rustling through the air Save the sea-sobbings everywhere, And sighs of that subsiding tide. F Magnificat. XX. SHE took the timbrel, as the tide Of lustral waves that, wall to wall, As eagles soar, her anthem soared. Miriam, rejoice! a mightier far Than thou, one day shall sing with thee! Who rises, brightening like a star Above yon bright baptismal sea? That harp which David touched who rears Heaven-high above those waters wide? The Prophet-Queen! Throughout all years She sings the Triumph of the Bride! Mystica. XXI. As pebbles flung for sport, that leap But enter not those chambers deep Such those light minds that, grazing, spurn Ah! not for such the unvalued gems; Not theirs the starry diadems That light God's temple in the abyss! Ah! not for such to gaze on her At That moves through all that empire pale; every shrine doth minister, Yet never drops her vestal veil. “The letter kills." Make pure thy Will; So shalt thou pierce the Text's disguise: Till then, revere the veil that still Hides truth from truth-affronting eyes. Expectatio. XXII. A SWEET exhaustion seems to hold In spells of calm the shrouded eve: The gorse itself a beamless gold Puts forth-yet nothing seems to grieve. The dewy chaplets hang on air; The willowy fields are silver-grey; Sad odours wander here and there;And yet we feel that it is May. Relaxed, and with a broken flow, From dripping bowers low carols swell In mellower, glassier tones, as though They mounted through a bubbling well. The crimson orchis scarce sustains Upon its drenched and drooping spire The burden of the warm soft rains; The purple hills grow nigh and nigher. |