'Hail! full of grace! thee the whole world shall call Above all bless'd; thee, who shall bless them all. Thy virgin womb in wondrous sort shall shroud Jesus the God; (and then again he bowed) Conception the great Spirit shall breathe on thee: Hail thou! who must God's wife, God's mother be.' With that his seeming form to heaven he reared, (She low obeisance made) and disappeared. Lo! a new star three Eastern sages see; (For why should only earth a gainer be?) They saw this Phosphor's infant light, and knew It bravely ushered in a sun as new; They hasted all this rising sun t' adore; With them rich myrrh, and early spices, bore. Wise men! no fitter gift your zeal could bring; You'll in a noisome stable find your king. Anon a thousand devils run roaring in; Some with a dreadful smile deform'dly grin; Some stamp their cloven paws, some frown, and tear The gaping snakes from their black-knotted hair; As if all grief, and all the rage of hell Were doubled now, or that just now they fell: But when the dreaded maid they entering saw, All fled with trembling fear and silent awe: In her chaste arms the Eternal Infant lies, The Almighty Voice changed into feeble cries. Heaven contained virgins oft, and will do more; Never did virgin contain Heaven before. Angels peep round to view this mystic thing, And halleluiah round, all halleluiah sing. No longer could good David quiet bear The unwieldy pleasure which o'erflowed him here: It broke the fetter, and burst ope his eye; Away the timorous Forms together fly. Fixed with amaze he stood, and time must take, To learn if yet he were at last awake. Sometimes he thinks that Heaven this vision sent, And ordered all the pageants as they went: Sometimes that only 'twas wild Fancy's play, The loose and scattered relics of the day. When Gabriel (no bless'd sp'rit more kind or fair) Bodies and clothes himself with thickened air; All like a comely youth in life's fresh bloom, Rare workmanship, and wrought by heavenly loom! He took for skin a cloud most soft and bright That e'er the mid-day sun pierced through with light; Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread, Washed from the morning beauty's deepest red; A harmless flaming meteor shone for hair, And fell adown his shoulders with loose care: He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies. Where the most sprightly azure please the eyes; This he with starry vapours spangles all, Took in their prime ere they grow ripe, and fall: Of a new rainbow, ere it fret or fade, The choicest piece took out, a scarf is made; Small streaming clouds he does for wings display, Not virtuous lovers' sighs more soft than they; These he gilds o'er with the sun's richest rays, Caught gliding o'er pure streams on which he plays.