XVIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT.

THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek
Through saintly habit than from effort due
To unrelenting mandates that pursue

With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak)
Goes forth-unveiling timidly a cheek

Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,

While through the Convent's gate to open view
Softly she glides, another home to seek.
Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,
An Apparition more divinely bright!
Not more attractive to the dazzled sight
Those watery glories, on the stormy brine
Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine,

And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!

XIX.

CONTINUED.

YET some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade,
Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee
The warrant hail, exulting to be free;

Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed
In polar ice, propitious winds have made

Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea,

Their liquid world, for bold discovery,

In all her quarters temptingly displayed!

Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass The threshold, whither shall they turn to find

The hospitality-the alms (alas!

Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed?

Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind

To keep this new and questionable road?

XX.

SAINTS.

YE, too, must fly before a chasing hand,
Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned!
Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,

Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land:
Her adoration was not your demand,

The fond heart proffered it-the servile heart;
And therefore are ye summoned to depart,

Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand
The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret
Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew :
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen
Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene,
Who in the penitential desert met

Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew !

XXI.

THE VIRGIN.

MOTHER! whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified,

Our tainted nature's solitary boast;

Purer than foam on central ocean tost;

Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,

Of high with low, celestial with terrene!

XXII.

APOLOGY.

Nor utterly unworthy to endure

Was the supremacy of crafty Rome;

Age after

age to the arch of Christendom Aërial keystone haughtily secure ;

Supremacy from Heaven transmitted pure,

As many hold; and, therefore, to the tomb
Pass, some through fire-and by the scaffold some—
Like saintly Fisher, and unbending More.

'Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit

Upon his throne;' unsoftened, undismayed

By aught that mingled with the tragic scene
Of pity or fear; and More's gay genius played
With the inoffensive sword of native wit,

Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.