Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Mother of mercy, thou,
When the worn frame is racked with agony,
When Reason's self scarce lights the glazing eye,
And Memory darkens Hope, art ever nigh
To soothe the fevered brow!

Thou who didst bend in love
O'er Joseph's tranquil deathbed, who didst fall
Prostrate to worship in the judgment hall
The blood of Jesus, still the sufferer's call
Thy mother's heart can move.

When the chill frost-wind's breath
Shook the rough death bed of the bleeding tree,
Tearing the nail-prints open, thou didst see
Each throb of anguish: therefore near us be
In sickness and in death!

116

II. Refugium Peccatorum.

Mother of purity,
Immaculate in thy conception, ne'er
Did Saint hate sin, as thou didst hate it; where
Was sinner's plaint outpoured to pitying ear
So welcome as to thee?

Thou by the darkened Cross
For three long hours didst echo back the cry,
‘Father forgive,’ till Dimas' mockery
Was turned to prayer, and Jesus' pardoning eye
Cancelled his endless loss.

Thou through the lengthening years
Dost travail with the children of thy woes,
Jesus' bequest in death; oh, let those throes
Of mother's anguish win to sure repose
The sinner's guilty fears!

117

III. Consolatrix Afflictorum.

Mother in sorrows proved!
Gentlest of sympathizers! Who hath felt
Such grief as thine was? Who like thee hath knelt
Helpless, unpitied, while the blow was dealt
To slay thy Best-beloved?

To thee we lift our eyes,
Exiles and pilgrims in this vale of tears
Wandering forlorn, while Salem's mount uprears
Its burning brow, and for the eternal years
The homesick spirit sighs.

O Mary, Mother blest,
Sweetest of earth's consolers, at thy name
The captive's chains fall off, the voice of blame
Is still, the moan of grief, the cry of shame
Are hushed upon thy breast!