2.
“Love is strong as death.”
On sable wings, o'ershadowing the sun's rays,
Death came, as to his own appointed reign,
Where he beheld the torturing beds of pain,
Scenting afar his quarry. With amaze
He back recoils, and upon One doth gaze
Whom he hath had no warrant to detain;
Sinless, and yet with sorrows, his sad train,
Consorting. At the sight he doubting stays,
Till He Who issued from the Virgin's womb,
With voice omnipotent that cried aloud,
Showed Himself, amid nature's awful gloom,
Stronger than death in dying; then resigned
Himself a willing Victim; dying bowed,
And on His Father's Breast His Head reclined.
