The same subject.

THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek
Through saintly habit than from effort due

To unrelenting mandates that pursue

With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak)
Goes forth-unveiling timidly a cheek

Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,
While through the Convent's gate to open view
Softly she glides, another home to seek.
Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,
An Apparition more divinely bright!
Not more attractive to the dazzled sight
Those watery glories, on the stormy brine

Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine,
And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!

Continued.

YET many a Novice of the cloistral shade,

And many chained by vows, with eager glee

The warrant hail, exulting to be free;

Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed
In polar ice, propitious winds have made

Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea,

Their liquid world, for bold discovery,

In all her quarters temptingly displayed!

Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass The threshold, whither shall they turn to find

The hospitality-- the alms (alas !

Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed? Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind

To keep this new and questionable road?

Saints.

YE, too, must fly before a chasing hand,

Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned !

Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,

Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land:
Her adoration was not your demand,

The fond heart proffered it-the servile heart;
And therefore are ye summoned to depart,

Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand
The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret
Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew:
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen
Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene,
Who in the penitential desert met
Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew!

The Virgin.

MOTHER! whose virgin bosom was uncrost

With the least shade of thought to sin allied;

Woman! above all women glorified,

Our tainted nature's solitary boast;

Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of Mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene !

Apology.

NOT utterly unworthy to endure

Was the supremacy of crafty Rome;
Age after age to the arch of Christendom
Aërial keystone haughtily secure ;

Supremacy from Heaven transmitted pure,
As many hold; and, therefore, to the tomb
Pass, some through fire-and by the scaffold some-
Like saintly Fisher, and unbending More.
'Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit
'Upon his throne;' unsoftened, undismayed
By aught that mingled with the tragic scene
Of pity or fear; and More's gay genius played
With the inoffensive sword of native wit,
Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.

Imaginative Regrets.

DEEP is the lamentation! Not alone

From Sages justly honoured by mankind;
But from the ghostly tenants of the wind,
Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan
Issues for that dominion overthrown:
Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind
As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined
Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan
Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den,

Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past

Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophets' native Waste,

Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned, 'Mid spectral lakes bemocking thirsty men,

And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.

Reflections.

GRANT, that by this unsparing hurricane

Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away, And goodly fruitage with the mother spray; 'T were madness-wished we, therefore, to detain, With hands stretched forth in mollified disdain, The 'trumpery' that ascends in bare displayBulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain Fast bound for Limbo Lake. And yet not choice But habit rules the unreflecting herd,

And airy bonds are hardest to disown;

Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred
Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice
Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.

Translation of the Bible.

BUT, to outweigh all harm, the sacred Book,
In dusty sequestration wrapt too long,

Assumes the accents of our native tongue;

And he who guides the plough, or wields the crook,
With understanding spirit now may look

Upon her records, listen to her song,

And sift her laws-much wondering that the wrong, Which Faith has suffered, Heaven could calmly brook. Transcendent boon! noblest that earthly King

Ever bestowed to equalize and bless

Under the weight of mortal wretchedness!

But passion spread like plagues, and thousands wild With bigotry shall tread the Offering

Beneath their feet, detested and defiled.

The Point at Issue.

OR what contend the wise?-for nothing less

Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense,

And to her God restored by evidence

Of things not seen, drawn forth from their recess,
Root there, and not in forms, her holiness;

For Faith, which to the Patriarchs did dispense
Sure guidance, ere a ceremonial fence

Was needful round men thirsting to transgress ;—
For Faith, more perfect still, with which the Lord
Of all, himself a Spirit, in the youth

Of Christian aspiration, deigned to fill

The temples of their hearts who, with his word
Informed, were resolute to do his will,

And worship him in spirit and in truth.

Edward V3.

'SWEET is the holiness of Youth'—so felt

Time-honoured Chaucer when he framed that Lay

By which the Prioress beguiled the way,

And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt.

Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit often dwelt

In the clear land of vision, but foreseen

King, child, and seraph, blended in the mien
Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt

In meek and simple infancy, what joy

For universal Christendom had thrilled

Thy heart! what hopes inspired thy genius, skilled (O great Precursor, genuine morning Star)

The lucid shafts of reason to employ,

Piercing the Papal darkness from afar !