University of Virginia Library

XVI.

This is my Lady Marian:
She walks our world, a Shining one!
A Woman with an Angel-face,
Sweet gravity, and tender grace;
And where she treads this earth of ours,
Heaven blossoms into smiling flowers.
This is the Lady Marian.
One of the spirits that walk in white!
Many dumb hearts that sit in night,
Her presence know, just as the Birds
Know Morning, murmuring cheerful words.
Where Life is darkest, she doth move
With influence as of visible Love.
This is the Lady Marian.
Her coming all your being fills
With a balm-breath from heaven's hills:
And in her face the light is mild
As though the heart within her smiled,
And in her bosom sat to sing
The spirit of immortal Spring.
This is the Lady Marian.
“We shall not mend the world; we try,
And lo, our work is vain!” they cry.
With her pathetic look, she hears;
You see the wounded soul bleed tears;

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Against the dark she sets her face,
And calmly keeps her onward pace.
This is the Lady Marian.
One of God's treasurers for the Poor!
She keepeth open heart and door.
That heart a holy well of wealth,
Brimming life-waters, rich with health;
That door an opening you look through,
To find God our side of Heaven's blue.
This is the Lady Marian.