Fest. B.V.M. de Monte Carmelo.
VII.
Carmel, with Alp and Apennine,
Low whispers in the wind that blows
Beneath the Eastern stars, ere shine
The lights of morning on their snows.
Of thee, Elias, Carmel speaks,
And that white cloud, so small at first,
Thou saw'st approach the mountain peaks
To quench a dying nation's thirst.
On Carmel, like a sheathed sword,
Thy monks abode till Jesus came;
On Carmel then they served their Lord;—
Then Carmel rang with Mary's name.
Blow over all the garden; blow
O'er all the garden of the West,
Balm-breathing Orient! Whisper low
The secret of thy spicy nest.
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"Who from the Desert upward moves
Like cloud of incense onward borne?
Who, moving, rests on Him she loves?
Who mounts from regions of the Morn?
"Behold! The apple-tree beneath—
There where of old thy Mother fell—
I raised thee up. More strong than Death
Is Love;—more strong than Death or Hell." [Footnote 5]
[Footnote 5: Cant. viii. 5.]
VIII.
Come from the midnight mountain tops,
The mountains where the panthers play:
Descend; the veil of darkness drops;
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.