Yet Thou didst come to us a wailing child, Homeless, tied up in swaddling-clothes, To live in poverty And by the road: then, with detractions piled, And infamies of misery From scourge and thorns and blows, To die a felon fastened into wood By nails that in their jeering harshness could Clamp vermin of the forests to a tree. And Thou dost come to us from Heaven each day, Obeying words that call Thee down On mortal lips; and Thou, Jesus, dost suffer mortal power to slay Its God in sacrifice: dost bow Thy bright Supremacy to lose its Crown, Closed in a prison, yet through Godhead free To every insult, gibe and contumely-- Come from Forever to be with us Now. So Thou dost come to us. But when at last Thou callest us to come to Thee, We only have to die, Only from weary bones our flesh to cast, Only to give a bitter cry; Yea, but a little while to see Our beauty falling from us, in its fall Destined to lose its suasions that enthral, Destined to be as any gem put by. We but fulfil our stricken Nature’s law To fail and to consume and end; While Thou dost come and break, Coming to us, Thy Nature with a flaw Of death and for our mortal sake Thou dost Thy awful wholeness rend. Oh, let me run to Thee, as runs a wind, That leaves the withered trees, it moved, behind, And triumphs forward, careless of its wake! WASTING I need Thee, O my Food, O Christ, for whom I pine fourteen long days-- And, as the time delays, More sad my mood, More faint my powers; Like that poor Beast of fairy-tale, Who by the fountain cowers, Reft of his Beauty, his poor love’s avail, By whom he lives, and, missing, dies By inches, at the fountain, with wan eyes! O come, my Beauty, come, My Lord, by whom I flourish and am strong; If I must wait so long, And mourn so dumb, Reach me in time, Before I shudder into death and die! Bow down sublime, O Beautiful in pity, where I lie, And rouse me, sovereign, from my woe, Empowering me with Thy celestial glow! THE HOUR OF NEED O mother of my Lord, Beautiful Mary, aid! He, whom thy will adored, When thy body was afraid, Is coming in my flesh to dwell-- Pray for me, Mary ... and white Gabriel! To thee He came a child, To me He comes as wheat: And He descended mild To His Mother, as was meet. To me He comes where sin hath been ... Gabriel, sweep thy lily-stem between! He came, O Mary, down To bless thy virgin womb: From me He sweeps God’s frown, And He lifts me from a tomb. Thou wert afraid.... Have grace toward me! Help me, O Mary! Gabriel, hearten me!