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The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti

A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump

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THE PURIFICATION OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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237

THE PURIFICATION OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN.

Purity born of a Maid:
Was such a Virgin defiled?
Nay, by no shade of a shade.
She offered her gift of pure love,
A dove with a fair fellow-dove.
She offered her Innocent Child
The Essence and Author of Love;
The Lamb that indwelt by the Dove
Was spotless and holy and mild;
More pure than all other,
More pure than His Mother,
Her God and Redeemer and Child.