Before the morn began to break The bright One bent above that pair Whose childless vows aspired to take The mother of their Lord for heir. 'Twas August: even in midnight shade The roofs were hot, and hot the street:-- "Build me a fane," the vision said, "Where first your eyes the snow shall meet." [Footnote 6] [Footnote 6: Santa Maria Maggiore, on the Esquiline, at Rome.] With snow the Esquiline was strewn At morn!--Fair Legend! who but thinks Of thee, when first the breezes blown From summer Alp to Alp he drinks? He stands: he hears the torrents dash: Slowly the vapours break; and lo! Through chasms of endless azure flash The peaks of everlasting snow. {100} He stands; he listens; on his ear Swells softly forth some virgin hymn: The white procession windeth near, With glimmering lights in sunshine dim. Mother of Purity and Peace! They sing the Saviour's name and thine Clothe them for ever with the fleece Unspotted of thy Lamb Divine! {101} _Fest. Puritatis._ XV. Far down the bird may sing of love; The honey-bearing blossom blow: But hail, ye hills that rise above The limit of perpetual snow! O Alpine City, with thy walls Of rock eterne and spires of ice, Where torrent still to torrent calls, And precipice to precipice;-- How like that holier City thou, The heavenly Salem's earthly porch, Which rears among the stars her brow, And plants firm feet on earth--the Church! "Decaying, ne'er to be decayed," Her woods, like thine, renew their youth: Her streams, in rocky arms embayed, Are clear as virtue, strong as truth. {102} At times the lake may burst its dam; Black pine and rock the valley strew; But o'er the ruin soon the lamb Its flowery pasture crops anew. She, too, in regions near the sky Up-piles her cloistered snows, and thence Diffuses gales of purity O'er fields of consecrated sense. On those still heights a love-light glows The plains from them alone receive;-- Not all the Lily! There thy Rose, O Mary, triumphs, morn and eve! {103} XVI. Cloud-piercing Mountains! Chance and Change More high than you their thrones advance. Self-vanquished Nature's rockiest range Gives way before them like the trance Of one that wakes. From morn to eve Through fissured clefts her mists make way; At Night's cold touch they freeze, and cleave Her crags; and, with a Titan's sway, Flake off and peel the rotting rocks, And heap the glacier tide below With isles of sand and floating blocks, As leaves on streams when tempests blow. Lo, thus the great decree all-just, O Earth, thy mountains hear; and learn From fire and frost its import--"dust Thou art; and shalt to dust return."