University of Virginia Library


37

On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

A wingèd harbinger from bright heav'n flown
Bespeaks a lodging-room
For the mighty King of Love.
The spotless structure of a virgin womb,
O'reshadow'd with the wings of the blest Dove:
For He was travelling to Earth,
But did desire to lay
By the way
That He might shift his clothes, and be
A perfect Man as well as we.
How good a God have we! Who for our sake,
To save us from the burning lake,
Did change the order of creation:
At first He made
Man like Himself in His own Image; now
In the more blessed reparation
The heavens bow:
Eternity took the measure of a span,
And said
Let us make our self like Man,
And not from man the woman take
But from the woman, Man.
Allelujah: we adore
His name, whose goodness hath no store.
Allelujah.