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!
YET many a Novice of the cloistral shade, And many chained by vows, with eager glee The warrant hail, exulting to be free;
Like ships before whose keels, full long em
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
The threshold, whither shall they turn to find The hospitality--the alms (alas!
Alms may be needed) which that House be
Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind
To keep this new and questionable road?
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
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!
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!
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
Like saintly Fisher, and unbending More, "Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit Upon his throne;" unsoftened, undismayed 10 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.
DEEP is the lamentation! Not alone From Sages justly honoured by mankind; But from the ghostly tenants of the wind, Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan Issues for that dominion overthrown: Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den, Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow
Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste, Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned
'Mid spectral lakes bemocking thirsty men, And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.
GRANT that by this unsparing hurricane Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away, And goodly fruitage with the mother spray; 'Twere madness-wished we, therefore, to de-
With hands stretched forth in mollified disdain, The "trumpery" that ascends in bare displayBulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and
Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain Fast bound for Limbo Lake. And yet not choice But habit rules the unreflecting herd, And airy bonds are hardest to disown; Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty trans- ferred
Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.
TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.
BUT, to outweigh all harm, the sacred Book, In dusty sequestration wrapt too long, Assumes the accents of our native tongue; And he who guides the plough, or wields the
With understanding spirit now may look Upon her records, listen to her song,
And sift her laws-much wondering that the
Which Faith has suffered, Heaven could calmly brook. Transcendent Boon! noblest that earthly King Ever bestowed to equalize and bless
Under the weight of mortal wretchedness! But passions spread like plagues, and thousands wild
With bigotry shall tread the Offering Beneath their feet, detested and defiled.
FOR what contend the wise?-for nothing less Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense,
And to her God restored by evidence
Of things not seen, drawn forth from their
Root there, and not in forms, her holiness ;— 5 For Faith, which to the Patriarchs did dispense Sure guidance, ere a ceremonial fence
Was needful round men thirsting to trans
For Faith, more perfect still, with which the Lord
Of all, himself a Spirit, in the youth
Of Christian aspiration, deigned to fill
The temples of their hearts who, with his word Informed, were resolute to do his will, And worship him in spirit and in truth.
"SWEET is the holiness of Youth ".
-so felt Time-honoured Chaucer speaking through that
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