"O Lord, oure Lord, thy name how merveillous Is in this large world ysprad," quod she; "For noght oonly thy laude precious Parfourned is by men of dignitee, But by the mouth of children thy bountee Parfourned is, for on the brest soukynge Somtyme shewen they thyn heriynge. Wherfore in laude, as I best kan or may, Of thee and of the white lylye flour Which that the bar, and is a mayde alway, To telle a storie I wol do my labour; Nat that I may encressen hir honour, For she hirself is honour and the roote Of bountee, next hir Sone, and soules boote. O mooder Mayde! o mayde Mooder free! O bussh unbrent, brennynge in Moyses sighte, That ravyshedest doun fro the Deitee, Thurgh thyn humblesse, the Goost that in th'alighte, Of whos vertu, whan he thyn herte lighte, Conceyved was the Fadres sapience, Help me to telle it in thy reverence! Lady, thy bountee, thy magnificence, Thy vertu, and thy grete humylitee, Ther may no tonge expresse in no science; For somtyme, Lady, er men praye to thee, Thou goost biforn of thy benyngnytee, And getest us the lyght, thurgh thy preyere, To gyden us unto thy Sone so deere. My konnyng is so wayk, o blisful Queene, For to declare thy grete worthynesse That I ne may the weighte nat susteene; But as a child of twelf month oold, or lesse, That kan unnethes any word expresse, Right so fare I, and therfore I yow preye, Gydeth my song that I shal of yow seye." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE IDAHO EGG WOMAN by KAREN SWENSON OUR COUNTRY'S CALL by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE LITTLE HILL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY PRELUDE by JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE WITH ETERNITY STANDING BY by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT A LETTER: A MANDARIN TO HIS WIFE by JESSIE MCINTOSH BROWN THE FAERY FOSTER-MOTHER by ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE FUGITIVE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |