Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE VIRGIN MOTHER, by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL Poet's Biography First Line: Who is that goddess to whom men should pray Last Line: As you with erring reverence overhead. Alternate Author Name(s): A. E. Subject(s): Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Women - Bible; Virgin Mary | ||||||||
WHO is that goddess to whom men should pray But her from whom their hearts have turned away, Out of whose virgin being they were born, Whose mother nature they have named in scorn Calling its holy substance common clay. Yet from this so despised earth was made The milky whiteness of those queens who swayed Their generations with a light caress, And from some image of whose loveliness The heart built up high heaven when it prayed. Lover, your heart, the heart on which it lies, Your eyes that gaze, and those alluring eyes, Your lips, the lips they kiss, alike had birth Within this dark divinity of earth, Within this mother being you despise. Ah, when I think this earth on which we tread Hath borne these blossoms of the lovely dead, And made the living heart I love to beat, I look with sudden awe beneath my feet As you with erring reverence overhead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MADONNA by KATHARINE LEE BATES BALLADE TO OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA by HILAIRE BELLOC OUR LORD AND OUR LADY by HILAIRE BELLOC PLASTIC BEATITUDE by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A SONG OF MARY by LUCILLE CLIFTON ISLAND MARY by LUCILLE CLIFTON MARY'S DREAM by LUCILLE CLIFTON A SUMMER NIGHT by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL |
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