Aubrey De Vere

“ Who Is ignorant that from Godhead's height To what is loftiest here below The interval is infinite? O Mary! with that smile thrice-blest Upon their petulance look down;— Their dull negation, cold protest— Thy smile will melt away their frown! Show them thy Son! That hour their heart Will beat and burn with love like thine; Grow large; and learn from thee that art Which communes best with things divine. The man who grasps not what is best In creaturely existence, he Is narrowest in the brain; and least Can grasp the thought of Deity. ”

“ XXI. As pebbles flung for sport, that leap Along the superficial tide, But enter not those chambers deep Wherein the beds of pearl abide; Such those light minds that, grazing, spurn The surface text of Sacred Lore, Yet ne'er its deeper sense discern, Its hails of mystery ne'er explore. Ah! not for such the unvalued gems; The priceless pearls of Truth they miss: Not theirs the starry diadems That light God's temple in the abyss! Ah! not for such to gaze on her That moves through all that empire pale; At every shrine doth minister, Yet never drops her vestal veil. ”

“ The airs of midnight hurt no more: The young maids love thee. Come at last: Thou lingerest at the garden-door. "Blow over all the garden; blow, Thou wind that breathest of the south, Through all the alleys winding low, With dewy wing and honeyed mouth. "But wheresoever thou wanderest, shape Thy music ever to one Name:— Thou too, clear stream, to cave and cape Be sure thou whisper of the same. "By every isle and bower of musk Thy crystal clasps, as on it curls, We charge thee, breathe it to the dusk; We charge thee, grave it in thy pearls." ”

“ XII. Fall back, all worlds, into the abyss, That man may contemplate once more That which He ever was Who is:— The Eternal Essence we adore. Angelic hierarchies! recede Beyond extinct creation's shade! What were ye at the first? Decreed:— Decreed, not fashioned; thought, not made! Like wind the untold Millenniums passed. Sole-throned He sat; yet not alone: Godhead in Godhead still was glassed;— The Spirit was breathed from Sire and Son. ”

“ Yet Nature's virginal suspense Is not forgetfulness nor sloth: Where'er we wander, soul and sense Discern a blindly working growth. Her throne once more the daisy takes, That white star of our dusky earth; And the sky-cloistered lark down-shakes Her passion of seraphic mirth. Twixt barren hills and clear cold skies She weaves, ascending high and higher, Songs florid as those traceries Which took, of old, their name from fire. Sing! thou that need'st no ardent clime To sun the sweetness from thy breast; And teach us those delights sublime Wherein ascetic spirits rest! ”

“ Balm-dropping heaven, for aye distil Thy grace like manna or like dew! "To us, this day, a Child is born.'" Heaven knows not mere historic facts:— Celestial mysteries, night and morn, Live on in ever-present Acts. Calvary's dread Victim in the skies On God's great altar rests even now: The Pentecostal glory lies For ever round the Church's brow. From Son and Father, He, the Lord Of Love and Life, proceeds alway: Upon the first creative word Creation, trembling, hangs for aye. ”

“ Come fair and fairer than the day! Our hearts are wounded with thine eyes: They character in words of light Thereon the mystery of the skies: The "Name o'er every name" they write. Come from thy Lebanonian peaks Whose sacerdotal cedars nod Above the world, when morning breaks— The Mountain of the House of God. The land thou lov'st—well is she! The ploughers on her back may plough; But in her vales upgrows the Tree Of Life, and binds the bleeding brow. ”

“ From room to room those children roam, Heart-stricken by the unwonted black: Their house no longer seems their home: They search; yet know not what they lack. Years pass: Self-Will and Passion strike Their roots more deeply day by day; Old servants weep; and "how unlike" Is all the tender neighbours say. And yet at moments, like a dream, A mother's image o'er them flits: Like her's their eyes a moment beam; The voice grows soft; the brow unknits. Such, Mary, are the realms once thine, That know no more thy golden reign. Hold forth from heaven thy Babe divine! O make thine orphans thine again! ”

“ It stood the Archetype sublime Of that fair world of finite things Which, in the bands of Space and Time, Creation's glittering verge enrings. Star-like within the depths serene Of that still vision, Mary, thou With Him, thy Son, of God wert seen Millenniums ere the lucid brow {50} Of Eye o'er Eden founts had bent,— Millenniums ere that second Fair With dust the hopes of man had blent, And stained the brightness once so fair. Elect of Creatures! Man in thee Beholds that primal Beauty yet,— Sees all that Man was formed to be,— Sees all that Man can ne'er forget! ”

“ The swallow, winter's rage o'erblown, Again, on warm May breezes borne, Revisiteth her haunts well-known; The lark is faithful to the morn. The whirlwind, missioned with its wings To drown the fleet and fell the tower, Obeys thee as the bird that sings Her love-chant in a fleeting shower. Amid an ordered universe Man's spirit only dares rebel:— With light, O God, its darkness pierce! ”

“ XXX. The sunless day is sweeter yet Than when the golden sun-showers danced On bower new-glazed or rivulet; And Spring her banners first advanced. By wind unshaken hang in dream The wind-flowers o'er their dark green lair; And those thin poppy cups that seem Not bodied forms, but woven of air. Nor bird is heard; nor insect flits. A tear-drop glittering on her cheek, Composed but shadowed, Nature sits— Yon primrose not more staid and meek. The light of pensive hope unquenched On those pathetic brows and eyes, She sits, by silver dew-showers drenched, Through which the chill spring-odours rise. ”

“ All strength beside is weakness. Might Belongs to God: and they alone, Self-emptied souls and seeming-slight, Are filled with God 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. {108} 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! ”

“ Yet, glancing through our misty clime, Some sparkles from that loftier sphere Make way to earth;—then most what time The annual spring-flowers re-appear. Amid the coarser needs of earth All shapes of brightness, what are they But wanderers, exiled from their birth, Or pledges of a happier day? Yea, what is Beauty, judged aright, But some surpassing, transient gleam; Some smile from heaven, in waves of light, Rippling o'er life's distempered dream? ”

“ Strong as the breeze of morning, rolled O'er answering woodlands from the sea, That matutinal anthem vast Which winds, like sunrise, round the globe, Following the sunrise, far and fast, And trampling on his fiery robe. Once more the Pentecostal torch Lights on the courses of the year: The "upper chamber" of the Church Is thrilled once more with joy and fear. Who lifts her brow from out the dust? Who fixes on a world restored A gaze like Eve's, but more august? ”

“ O Alpine City, with thy walls Of rock eterne and spires of ice, Where torrent still to torrent calls, And precipice to precipice;— How like that holier City thou, The heavenly Salem's earthly porch, Which rears among the stars her brow, And plants firm feet on earth—the Church! "Decaying, ne'er to be decayed," Her woods, like thine, renew their youth: Her streams, in rocky arms embayed, Are clear as virtue, strong as truth. {102} At times the lake may burst its dam; Black pine and rock the valley strew; But o'er the ruin soon the lamb Its flowery pasture crops anew. ”

“ The sinless Eden still was fair. They, they alone, whose light of grace But late made Paradise look dim, Stood now, a blot upon its face, Before their God; nor gazed on Him. They glanced not up; or they had seen In that severe, death-dooming eye Unutterable depths serene Of sadly-piercing sympathy. Not them alone that Eye beheld, But, by their side, that other Twain, In whom the race whose doom was knelled Once more should rise; once more should reign. {10} It saw that Infant crowned with blood;— And her from whose predestined breast That Infant ruled the worlds. ”

“ Things earthly perish: life to death And death to life in turn succeeds. The spirit never perisheth: The chrysalis its Psyche breeds. True life alone is that which soars To Him who triumphed o'er the grave: With Him, on life's eternal shores, I trust one day a part to have. Ah, hark! above the springing corn That chime; in every breeze it swells! Ye bells that wake the Ascension morn, Ye give us back our Paschal bells! ”

“ Leaving, in reverence, unexpressed What Man must know not, yet adore. For where her court true Wisdom keeps, 'Mid loftier handmaids, one there stands Dark as the midnight's starry deeps, A Slave, gem-crowned, from Nubia's sands. O thou whose light is in thy heart Love-taught Submission! without thee Science may soar awhile; but Art Drifts barren o'er a shoreless sea. ”

“ O perishable vales and groves! Your master was not made for you; Ye are but creatures: human loves Are to the great Creator due. And yet, through Nature's symbols dim, There are with keener sight that pierce The outward husk, and reach to Him Whose garment is the universe. For this to earth the Saviour came In flesh; in part for this He died; That man might have, in soul and frame, No faculty unsanctified. That Fancy's self—so prompt to lead Through paths disastrous or defiled— Upon the Tree of Life might feed ”

“ The perfect work of May is done: Hard by a new perfection waits:— The twain, a sister and a nun, A moment parley at the grates. The whiter Spirit turns in peace To hide her in the cloistral shade:— 'Tis time that you should also cease, Slight carols in her honour made. ”

“ To make the noon-tide sloth's excuse. Panting, but pleased, the cattle stand Knee-deep in water-weed and sedge, And scarcely crop the greener band Of osiers round the river's edge. But hark! Far off the south wind sweeps The golden-foliaged groves among, Renewed or lulled, with rests and leaps— Ah! how it makes the spirit long To drop its earthly weight, and drift Like yon white cloud, on pinions free, Beyond that mountain's purple rift, And o'er that scintillating sea! ”

“ Let no one, Mary, name thy name, While, aping God, 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. ”

“ Who feels not, when the Spring once more, Stepping o'er Winter's grave forlorn With winged feet, retreads the shore Of widowed Earth, his bosom burn? As ordered flower succeeds to flower, And May the ladder of her sweets Ascends, advancing hour by hour From scale to scale, what heart but beats? ”

“ How oft a gloom eternal lurks Beneath an evanescent smile! But thou, serene and smiling light Of every grace redeemed from Sense, In thee all harmonies unite That charm a pure Intelligence. Whatever teaches mind or heart To God by loveliest types to mount, Mary, is thine. Of each true Art The parent art thou, and the fount. ”

“ Thy shadow stretches far its hand. That God who made the sun and moon In swaddling bands lies dumb and bound!— Love's Captive! darker prison soon Awaits Thee in the garden ground. He wakens. Paradise looks forth Beyond the portals of the grave. Life, life thou gavest! life to Earth, Not Him. Thine Infant dies to save. ”

“ The orbits of our life and thought In Thee their little arcs describe. In the dead calm, at cool of day, We hear Thy voice, and turn, and flee:— Thy love outstrips us on our way: From Thee, O God, we fly—to Thee. ”

“ A dying moon beneath her wanes: But he that letteth still must let: The Power accurst awhile remains. Break up, strong Earth, thy stony floors, And snatch to penal caverns dun That Dragon from the pit that wars Against the woman and her Son! ”

“ The ear is richer than the eye: Upon the eye no shape can cast Such impress of Infinity. And thou, my soul, thy wings of might Put forth:—thou too, one day shalt soar, And, onward borne in heavenward flight, The starry universe explore; Breasting that breeze which waves the bowers Of Heaven's bright forest never mute, Whereof perchance this earth of ours Is but the feeblest forest-fruit. "The Spirit bloweth where He wills"— Effluence of that Life Divine Which wakes the Universe, and stills, In Thy strong refluence make us Thine!
{117}
Coeli enarrant. XXVIII. Sole Maker of the Worlds! ”

“ The sceptre of His empery Subdues the worlds from end to end. Yet still the sword goes through her heart, For still on earth His Church survives. In her that woman holds a part: In her she suffers, wakes, and strives. ”

“ That winds in thee, a river broad, From Christ, with heaven-reflecting face, Gladdening the City of thy God:— Be this thy gift: that man henceforth No more should creep through life content (Draining the springs impure of earth) With life's material element. ”

“ She, too, in regions near the sky Up-piles her cloistered snows, and thence Diffuses gales of purity O'er fields of consecrated sense. On those still heights a love-light glows The plains from them alone receive;— Not all the Lily! There thy Rose, O Mary, triumphs, morn and eve! {103} XVI. Cloud-piercing Mountains! Chance and Change More high than you their thrones advance. Self-vanquished Nature's rockiest range Gives way before them like the trance Of one that wakes. From morn to eve Through fissured clefts her mists make way; At Night's cold touch they freeze, and cleave Her crags ”