And so acknowledged with a tremulous joy

Felt to the centre of that heavenly calm[693]

With which by nature every mother's soul

Is stricken in the moment when her throes

Are ended, and her ears have heard the cry

Which tells her that a living child is born;

And she lies conscious, in a blissful rest,

That the dread storm is weathered by them both.

"The Father—him at this unlooked-for gift

A bolder transport seizes. From the side