Yet many a Novice of the cloistral shade, And many chained by vows, with eager glee[171] The warrant hail, exulting to be free; Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed In polar ice, propitious winds have made 5 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 10 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? FOOTNOTES: [171] 1840. Yet some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade, Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee 1822. XXIV 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, 5 The fond heart proffered it--the servile heart; And therefore are ye summoned to depart, Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand[172] The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret[173] Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew: 10 And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen[174] Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene, Who in the penitential desert met Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew! FOOTNOTES: [172] St. George, patron Saint of England, supposed to have suffered A.D. 284. The Greek Church honours him as "the great martyr."--ED. [173] St. Margaret, supposed to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch, A.D. 275.--ED. [174] St. Cecilia, patron Saint of Music, has been enrolled as a martyr by the Latin Church from the fifth century.--ED. XXV THE VIRGIN[175] 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; 5 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, 10 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![176] FOOTNOTES: [175] Compare the _Stanzas suggested in a Steam-boat off Saint Bees' Head_, (l. 114); also the following sonnet by the late John Nichol, Professor of English Literature in the University of Glasgow. (See _The Death of Themistocles, and other Poems_, p. 189.) AVE MARIA