{vi}
With the meditative, descriptive pieces have been interspersed. They are an attempt towards a Christian rendering of external nature. Nature, like Art, needs to be spiritualised, unless it is to remain a fortress in the hands of an adverse Power. The visible world is a passive thing, which ever takes its meaning from something above itself. In Pagan times, it drew its interpretation from Pantheism; and to Pantheism—nay, to that Idolatry which is the popular application of Pantheism—it has still a secret, though restrained tendency, not betrayed by literature alone. A World without Divinity, Matter without Soul, is intolerable to the human mind. Yet, on the other hand, there is much in fallen human nature which shrinks from the sublime thought of a Creator, and rests on that of a sheathed Divinity diffused throughout the universe, its life, not its maker. Mere personified elements, the Wood-God and River-Nymph, captivate the fancy and do not over-awe the soul. For a bias so seductive, no cure is to be found save in authentic Christianity, the only practical Theism. The whole truth, on the long run, holds its own better than the half truth; and minds repelled by the thought of a God who stands afar off, and created the universe but to abandon it to general laws, fling themselves at the feet of a God made Man. In other words, {vii} the Incarnation is the Complement of Creation. In it is revealed the true nature of that link which binds together the visible and invisible worlds. When the "Word was made Flesh," a bridge was thrown across that gulf which had else for ever separated the Finite from the Infinite. The same high Truth which brings home to us the doctrine of a Creation, consecrates that Creation, reconstituting it into an Eden meet for an unfallen Adam and an unfallen Eve; nay, exalting it into a heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of the Lamb and of the Bride. It does this, in part, through symbols and associations founded on the all-cleansing Blood and the all-sanctifying Spirit—symbols and associations the reverse of those in which an Epicurean mythology took delight, and which the very superficial alone can confound with such. This is perhaps the aspect of Religion least above the level of Poetry.
As to its form, the present work belongs to the class of serial poems, a species of composition happily revived in recent times, as by Wordsworth, in his "Ecclesiastical Sketches," and "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty," by Landor, and, with preeminent success, by the author of "In Memoriam." It was in common use among our earlier poets, who derived it from Petrarch and the Italians. Most often the interest of such poems was of a personal sort, as in the serial sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Drummond, Daniel, and Drayton; as well as the "Aurora" of Lord {viii} Stirling, and the "Astrea" of Sir John Davies. Occasionally, it was of a more abstract character. In both cases, alike, advantage was derived from a method of writing which unites an indefinite degree of continuity with a somewhat lawless variety, and which gains in brevity by the omission of connecting bonds. In Herbert's "Temple," Vaughan's "Silex Scintillans," and the chief poems of Donne and Crashaw, the unity is but that of kindred thoughts, and a common subject, not of a complete design. Habington's "Castara," a noble work too little known, combines a personal with an abstract interest. In it many poems on religious and philosophical subjects are grouped for support round a single centre; that centre being the sustained homage paid by the poet to one not unworthy, apparently, of his reverence and love.
{ix}{x}{xi}{xii}
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Prologue | [xv] |
| PART I. | |
| Who feels not, when the Spring once more | [3] |
| Upon Thy face, O God, thy world | [5] |
| All but unutterable Name | [6] |
| Sancta Maria | [7] |
| Dei Genitrix | [8] |
| Virgo Virginum | [9] |
| Ascending from the convent-grates | [11] |
| Adolescentulae amaverunt te nimis | [12] |
| Mater Christi | [13] |
| Mater Christi | [14] |
| Mater Creatoris | [15] |
| Mater Salvatoris | [16] |
| Mater Dolorosa | [17] |
| Mater Dolorosa | [18] |
| Mater Admirabilis | [19] |
| Mater Amabilis | [20] |
| Mater Filii | [21] |
| Mater Divinae Gratiae | [22] |
| Mater Divinae Gratiae | [23] |
| When April's sudden sunset cold | [24] |
| As children when, with heavy tread | [25] |
| Mariae Cliens | [26] |
| Fest. Visitationis | [28] |
| Not yet, not yet! the Season sings | [29] |
| Fest. Nativitatis B.V.M. | [30] |
| The moon, ascending o'er a mass | [32] |
| A dream came to me while the night | [33] |
| Fest. Purificationis | [34] |
| Fest. Epiphaniae | [35] |
| The sunless day is sweeter yet | [36] |
| Legenda | [37] |
| PART II. | |
| Conservabat in Corde | [41] |
| Ascensio Domini | [42] |
| Ascensio Domini | [43] |
| Elias | [44] |
| Stronger and steadier every hour | [45] |
| Speculum Justitiae | [46] |
| Munera | [48] |
| Predestinata | [49] |
| Three worlds there are:—the first of Sense— | [51] |
| Alas! not only loveliest eyes | [52] |
| Idolatria | [53] |
| Tota Pulchra | [55] |
| Stella Matutina | [57] |
| Janua Coeli | [58] |
| If sense of Man's unworthiness | [60] |
| Causa Nostra Laetitiae | [61] |
| Stella Maris | [62] |
| Blossom for ever, blossoming Rod! | [64] |
| Unica | [65] |
| Magnificat | [66] |
| Mystica | [67] |
| Expectatio | [68] |
| Still on the gracious work proceeds | [70] |
| Turris Eburnea | [71] |
| Who doubts that thou art finite? Who | [73] |
| They seek not; or amiss they seek | [74] |
| A sudden sun-burst in the woods | [75] |
| Dominica Pentecostes | [76] |
| Dominica Pentecostes | [78] |
| Turris Davidica | [79] |
| "Tu sola interemisti omnes Haereses" | [80] |
| PART III. | |
| In vain thine altars do they heap | [83] |
| Babylon | [84] |
| The golden rains are dashed against | [85] |
| Sedes Sapientiae | [86] |
| Sedes Sapientiae | [87] |
| Here, in this paradise of light | [88] |
| Fest. B.V.M. de Monte Carmelo | [89] |
| Come from the midnight mountain tops | [91] |
| Advocata Nostra | [92] |
| Thronus Trinitatis | [93] |
| Cultus Sanctorum | [94] |
| Fest. S. S. Trinitatis | [96] |
| Where is the crocus now, that first | [98] |
| "Ad Nives" | [99] |
| Fest. Puritatis | [101] |
| Cloud-piercing Mountains! Chance and Change | [103] |
| Foederis Arca | [104] |
| Domus Aurea | [105] |
| Respexit Humilitatem | [106] |
| Respexit Humilitatem | [107] |
| "Sine Labe originali Concepta" | [109] |
| "Sine Labe originali Concepta" | [110] |
| Brow-bound with myrtle and with gold | [111] |
| Corpus Christi | [112] |
| Corpus Christi | [114] |
| Pleasant the swarm about the bough | [115] |
| Sing on, wide winds, your anthems vast | [116] |
| Coeli enarrant | [117] |
| Caro factus est | [119] |
| A woman "clothed with the sun" | [121] |
| No ray or all their silken sheen | [122] |
| Epilogue | [125] |
PROLOGUE.
That sun-eyed Power which stands sublime
Upon the rock that crowns our globe,
Her feet on all the spoils of time,
With light eternal on her robe,
She, sovereign of the orb she guides,
On Truth's broad sun may root a gaze
That deepens, onward as she rides,
And shrinks not from the fontal blaze:
But they—her daughter Arts—must hide
Within the cleft, content to see
Dim skirts of glory waving wide,
And steps of parting Deity.
'Tis theirs to watch Religion break
In types from Nature's frown or smile,
The legend rise from out the lake,
The relic consecrate the isle.
'Tis theirs to adumbrate and suggest;
To point toward founts of buried lore;
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.