<h2><SPAN name="page56"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>BLESSED AMONG WOMEN</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">To the Signora
Cairoli</span></p>
<h3>1</h3>
<p class="poetry"> <span class="smcap">Blessed</span> was she that bare,<br/>
Hidden in flesh most fair,<br/>
For all men’s sake the likeness of all love;<br/>
Holy that virgin’s womb,<br/>
The old record saith, on whom<br/>
The glory of God alighted as a dove;<br/>
Blessed, who brought to gracious birth<br/>
The sweet-souled Saviour of a man-tormented earth.</p>
<h3>2</h3>
<p class="poetry"> But four
times art thou blest,<br/>
At whose most holy breast<br/>
Four times a godlike soldier-saviour hung;<br/>
And thence a fourfold Christ<br/>
Given to be sacrificed<br/>
To the same cross as the same bosom clung;<br/>
Poured the same blood, to leave the same<br/>
Light on the many-folded mountain-skirts of fame.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page57"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>3</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Shall they
and thou not live,<br/>
The children thou didst give<br/>
Forth of thine hands, a godlike gift, to death,<br/>
Through fire of death to pass<br/>
For her high sake that was<br/>
Thine and their mother, that gave all you breath?<br/>
Shall ye not live till time drop dead,<br/>
O mother, and each her children’s consecrated head?</p>
<h3>4</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Many
brought gifts to take<br/>
For her love’s supreme
sake,<br/>
Life and life’s love, pleasure and praise and rest,<br/>
And went forth bare; but thou,<br/>
So much once richer, and now<br/>
Poorer than all these, more than these be blest;<br/>
Poorer so much, by so much given,<br/>
Than who gives earth for heaven’s sake, not for
earth’s sake heaven.</p>
<h3>5</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Somewhat
could each soul save,<br/>
What thing soever it gave,<br/>
But thine, mother, what has thy soul kept back?<br/>
None of thine all, not one,<br/>
To serve thee and be thy son,<br/>
Feed with love all thy days, lest one day lack;<br/>
All thy whole life’s love, thine heart’s
whole,<br/>
Thou hast given as who gives gladly, O thou the supreme soul.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page58"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>6</h3>
<p class="poetry"> The
heart’s pure flesh and blood,<br/>
The heaven thy motherhood,<br/>
The live lips, the live eyes, that lived on thee;<br/>
The hands that clove with sweet<br/>
Blind clutch to thine, the feet<br/>
That felt on earth their first way to thy knee;<br/>
The little laughter of mouths milk-fed,<br/>
Now open again to feed on dust among the dead;</p>
<h3>7</h3>
<p class="poetry"> The fair,
strong, young men’s strength,<br/>
Light of life-days and length,<br/>
And glory of earth seen under and stars above,<br/>
And years that bring to tame<br/>
Now the wild falcon fame,<br/>
Now, to stroke smooth, the dove-white breast of love;<br/>
The life unlived, the unsown seeds,<br/>
Suns unbeholden, songs unsung, and undone deeds.</p>
<h3>8</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Therefore
shall man’s love be<br/>
As an own son to thee,<br/>
And the world’s worship of thee for a child;<br/>
All thine own land as one<br/>
New-born, a nursing son,<br/>
All thine own people a new birth undefiled;<br/>
And all the unborn Italian time,<br/>
And all its glory, and all its works, thy seed sublime.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page59"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>9</h3>
<p class="poetry"> That
henceforth no man’s breath,<br/>
Saying “Italy,” but
saith<br/>
In that most sovereign word thine equal name;<br/>
Nor can one speak of thee<br/>
But he saith
“Italy,”<br/>
Seeing in two suns one co-eternal flame;<br/>
One heat, one heaven, one heart, one fire,<br/>
One light, one love, one benediction, one desire.</p>
<h3>10</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Blest above
praise and prayer<br/>
And incense of men’s air,<br/>
Thy place is higher than where such voices rise<br/>
As in men’s temples make<br/>
Music for some vain sake,<br/>
This God’s or that God’s, in one weary wise;<br/>
Thee the soul silent, the shut heart,<br/>
The locked lips of the spirit praise thee that thou art.</p>
<h3>11</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Yea, for
man’s whole life’s length,<br/>
And with man’s whole
soul’s strength,<br/>
We praise thee, O holy, and bless thee, O mother of lights;<br/>
And send forth as on wings<br/>
The world’s heart’s
thanksgivings,<br/>
Song-birds to sing thy days through and thy nights;<br/>
And wrap thee around and arch thee above<br/>
With the air of benediction and the heaven of love.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page60"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>12</h3>
<p class="poetry"> And toward
thee our unbreathed words<br/>
Fly speechless, winged as
birds,<br/>
As the Indian flock, children of Paradise,<br/>
The winged things without feet,<br/>
Fed with God’s dew for
meat,<br/>
That live in the air and light of the utter skies;<br/>
So fleet, so flying a footless flight,<br/>
With wings for feet love seeks thee, to partake thy sight.</p>
<h3>13</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Love like a
clear sky spread<br/>
Bends over thy loved head,<br/>
As a new heaven bends over a new-born earth,<br/>
When the old night’s womb is
great<br/>
With young stars passionate<br/>
And fair new planets fiery-fresh from birth;<br/>
And moon-white here, there hot like Mars,<br/>
Souls that are worlds shine on thee, spirits that are stars.</p>
<h3>14</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Till the
whole sky burns through<br/>
With heaven’s own heart-deep
hue,<br/>
With passion-coloured glories of lit souls;<br/>
And thine above all names<br/>
Writ highest with lettering
flames<br/>
Lightens, and all the old starriest aureoles<br/>
And all the old holiest memories wane,<br/>
And the old names of love’s chosen, found in thy sight
vain.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page61"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>15</h3>
<p class="poetry"> And crowned
heads are discrowned,<br/>
And stars sink without sound,<br/>
And love’s self for thy love’s sake waxes pale<br/>
Seeing from his storied skies<br/>
In what new reverent wise<br/>
Thee Rome’s most highest, her sovereign daughters, hail;<br/>
Thee Portia, thee Veturia grey,<br/>
Thee Arria, thee Cornelia, Roman more than they.</p>
<h3>16</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Even all
these as all we<br/>
Subdue themselves to thee,<br/>
Bow their heads haloed, quench their fiery fame;<br/>
Seen through dim years divine,<br/>
Their faint lights feminine<br/>
Sink, then spring up rekindled from thy flame;<br/>
Fade, then reflower and reillume<br/>
From thy fresh spring their wintering age with new-blown
bloom.</p>
<h3>17</h3>
<p class="poetry"> To thy much
holier head<br/>
Even theirs, the holy and dead,<br/>
Bow themselves each one from her heavenward height;<br/>
Each in her shining turn,<br/>
All tremble toward thee and
yearn<br/>
To melt in thine their consummated light;<br/>
Till from day’s Capitolian dome<br/>
One glory of many glories lighten upon Rome.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page62"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>18</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Hush
thyself, song, and cease,<br/>
Close, lips, and hold your
peace;<br/>
What help hast thou, what part have ye herein?<br/>
But you, with sweet shut eyes,<br/>
Heart-hidden memories,<br/>
Dreams and dumb thoughts that keep what things have been<br/>
Silent, and pure of all words said,<br/>
Praise without song the living, without dirge the dead.</p>
<h3>19</h3>
<p class="poetry"> Thou,
strengthless in these things,<br/>
Song, fold thy feebler wings,<br/>
And as a pilgrim go forth girt and shod,<br/>
And where the new graves are,<br/>
And where the sunset star,<br/>
To the pure spirit of man that men call God,<br/>
To the high soul of things, that is<br/>
Made of men’s heavenlier hopes and mightier memories;</p>
<h3>20</h3>
<p class="poetry"> To the
elements that make<br/>
For the soul’s living
sake<br/>
This raiment of dead things, of shadow and trance,<br/>
That give us chance and time<br/>
Wherein to aspire and climb<br/>
And set our life’s work higher than time or chance<br/>
The old sacred elements, that give<br/>
The breath of life to days that die, to deeds that live;</p>
<h3><SPAN name="page63"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>21</h3>
<p class="poetry"> To them,
veiled gods and great,<br/>
There bow thee and dedicate<br/>
The speechless spirit in these thy weak words hidden;<br/>
And mix thy reverent breath<br/>
With holier air of death,<br/>
At the high feast of sorrow a guest unbidden,<br/>
Till with divine triumphal tears<br/>
Thou fill men’s eyes who listen with a heart that
hears.</p>
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