Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MONSTRA TE ESSE MATREM, by EMILY HENRIETTA HICKEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MONSTRA TE ESSE MATREM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O mary mother, pray for one
Last Line: Kneeling before the mercy gate.
Subject(s): Catholics; Cavalry; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Mothers; Prayer; Women In The Bible; Roman Catholics; Catholicism; Virgin Mary


O MARY MOTHER, pray for one
With whom our souls had union!
Mother of pity and grace thou art,
So let the pity of thy dear heart
Go out for one who suffered much,
And show thyself the Mother. Such
As he are surely born to know
The ultimate of joy and woe:
Open to breathe at every pore,
No influence could he ignore
Of wind and mountain, sea and sky,
And man's delight and agony.
God's voice through all his being rang,
And the Foe's call, and the World's clang,
And self and love found battlefield,
Nor quite to win, nor quite to yield.

O Mary, Mother dear! he fed
His life sometimes at the Spring-head
Of life, and yet sometimes he chewed
The swine's poor husks for God's own food.
O Mother! he God meant to soar
On eagle wing dropt low and lower
The stately pinions of desire
That bore him high ofttimes, yea, higher
Than souls in painful toil that climb
God's mount of purity sublime.

Mother, dear Mother, if he sinned,
He never cloaked his fault or thinned
His blame, and surely did not wait
The passage through the deathly gate
To suffer. All that exquisite
Power of delight contained in it
Power of great anguish to chastise
The dear delight. How otherwise?

And well thou knowest how he took
Upon his soul the sore rebuke,
The bitter wrong, the anguish grim,—
O Mary, Mary, pray for him—
We dare to say it, Mother! he
Shouldered the Cross of Calvary
In the world's agony and shame,
And sin and ill that bears no name.
He saw God's little children sweet
Trampled beneath the devils' feet:
He heard the inarticulate cry
Of women bound in slavery:
He saw through bitter blinding tears
The sorrow of the mortal years:
He mourned for loss, and pain, and need:
O Mother sweet, he loved indeed.

Dear Mother, by the Holy Ghost
Made Mother, well we know thou know'st!
Say this to Jesus. Yes, we say
It all to Him, and ever pray
His mercy and His peace and light,
And sweet refreshment infinite;
But prayers of ours are soiled and dim,
So Mary, Mary, pray for him!
Thou who art love and purity,
The Lord being evermore with thee,
Thou above men and women blest,
O purest one, O tenderest,
Pray for this soul Thou knowest all
We fain would say, as here we fall
And kiss thy sacred feet which trod
The way to Calvary with God.
His name is on thy heart. We wait,
Kneeling before the mercy gate.





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