XVI.

  Mother of Love! Thy love to Him
    Cherub and seraph can but guess:—
  A mother sees its image dim
    In her own breathless tenderness.

  That infant touch none else could feel
    Vibrates like light through all her sense:
  Far off she hears his cry: her zeal
    With lions fights in his defence.

  Unmarked his youth goes by: his hair
    Still smooths she down, still strokes apart:
  The first white thread that meets her there
    Glides, like a dagger, through her heart.

  Men praise him: on her matron cheek
    There dawns once more a maiden red.
  Of war, of battle-fields they speak:
    She sees once more his father dead.

  In sickness—half in sleep—she hears
    His foot, ere yet that foot is nigh:
  Wakes with a smile; and scarcely fears,
    If he but clasp her hand, to die.

XVII.

  Others, the hours of youth gone by,
    A mother's hearth and home forsake;
  And, with the need, the filial tie
    Relaxes, though it does not break.

  But Thou wert born to be a Son.
    God's Son in heaven, Thy will was this,
  To pass the chain of Sonship on,
    And bind in one whatever is.

  Thou cam'st the Son of Man to be,
    That so Thy brethren too might bear
  Adoptive Sonship, and with Thee
    Thy Sire's eternal kingdom share.

  Transcendently the Son Thou art:
    In this mysterious bond entwine,
  As in a single, two-celled heart,
    Thy natures, human and divine.

XVIII.

  "They have no wine." The tender guest
    Was grieved their feast should lack for aught.
  He seemed to slight her mute request:
    Not less the grace she wished He wrought.

  O great in Love! O full of Grace!
    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.

  Let sacraments to sense succeed:
    Let nought be winning, nought be good
  Which fails of Him to speak, and bleed
    Once more with His all-cleansing blood!