Ava Hail

Gabriel Rosetti, in his poem on the Virgin Mother, which he calls "Ave Hail," has lines in which he imaginatively describes her. What an important office she held! Yet, never rightly apprehending the truth about him until after the day of Pentecost; a sinning soul, needing redemption from her son very own son.

"Work and play.
Things common to the course of day
Awed thee with meanings unfulfilled,
And all through girlhood, something stilled
Thy senses, like the birth of light
When thou hast trimmed thy lamp at night
Or washed thy garments in the stream;
To whose white bed had come the dream
That He was thine, and thou wast His
Who feeds among the lilies.
A solemn shadow of the end
In that wise spirit long contained!
Oh, awful end! And thus unsaid
Long years when it was finished!"