 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere
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XIV.
ON A PICTURE OF THE MAGDALENE.
Weeper perpetual, of whom men say
Not that she lived so long, ‘but so long wept;’
And in her fond imagination crept
Fearful, yet fond, to those blest feet each day:
There knelt to wash them: there to wipe them lay:
There in her shining locks caught them and kept:
And hallowed thus, a tender love-adept,
Thenceforth those glittering tresses never grey!—
Fulfilled Thy Master's word hath been! Where'er
Thy Lord is preached art thou remembered, making
Repentance to sad hearts dear, and yet dearer.
Thine eyes like heavens by midnight rains left clearer,
How oft we see thee thus through deserts bare,
Thy sad yet solaced way in silence taking!
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere
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