Classic Poem

VISION OF PARADISE.

Freely the Sage, though wrapt in musings high,
Assumed the teacher's part, and mild began:

" The wound that Mary closed, she opened first
Who sits so beautiful at Mary's feet
The third in order; underneath her, lo,
Rachel with Beatrice; Sarah next;
Judith, Rebecca, and the gleaner-maid,
Meek ancestress of him who sang the songs
Of sore repentance in his sorrowful mood.
All as I name them, down from leaf to leaf,
Are in gradation throned on the Rose.
And from the seventh step successively,
Adown the breathing tresses of the flower,
Still doth the file of Hebrew dames proceed.
For these are a partition wall, whereby
The sacred stairs are severed, as the faith
In Christ divides them. On this part, where blooms
Each leaf in full maturity, are set
Such as in Christ, or e'er he came, believed.
On the other, where an intersected space
Yet shows the semicircle void, abide
All they who looked to Christ already come.
And as our Lady on her glorious stool,
And they who on their stools beneath her sit,
This way distinction make; e'en so on his,
The mighty Baptist that way marks the line
(He who endured the desert, and the pains
Of martyrdom, and for two years of hell,
Yet still continued holy), and beneath,
Augustine, Francis, Benedict, and the rest;
Thus far from round to round. So heaven's decree
Forecasts, this garden equally to fill
With faith in either view, past or to come.
Learn too, that downward from the step which cleaves
Midway the twain compartments, none there are
Who place obtain for merit of their own,
But have, through other's merit, been advanced
On set conditions; spirits all released,
Ere for themselves they had the power to choose.
And if thou mark and listen to them well,
Their childish looks and voice declare as much.

*****

Now raise thy view
Unto the visage most resembling Christ:
For in her splendour only shalt thou win
The power to look on him."
Forthwith, I saw
Such floods of gladness on her visage showered,
From holy spirits winging that profound.

That whatsoever I had yet beheld
Had not so much suspended me with wonder,
Or shown me such similitude of God.
And he who had to her descended once
On earth, now hailed in heaven; and on poised wing,
" Ave, Maria; Gratia Plena," sang:
To whose sweet anthem all the blissful court,
From all parts answering, rang: that holier joy
Brooded the deep serene.
Father revered,
Who deign'st for me to quit the pleasant place
Wherein thou sittest, by eternal lot,
Say, who that angel is, that with such glee
Beholds our Queen, and so enamoured glows
Of her high beauty, that all fire he seems."

So I again resorted to the lore
Of my wise teacher, he whom Mary's charms
Embellished, as the sun the morning star;
Who thus in answer spake:
" In him are summed
Whate'er of buxomness and free delight
May be in spirit, or in angel met:
And so beseems; for that he bare the palm
Down unto Mary, when the Son of God
Vouchsafed to clothe him in terrestrial weeds.
Now let thine eyes wait heedful on my words;
And note thou of this just and pious realm
The chiefest nobles. Those highest in bliss,
The twain, on each hand next our Empress throned,
Are, as it were, two roots unto this Rose:
He to the left, the parent whose rash taste
Proves bitter to his seed; and on the right,
That ancient father of the holy Church,

Into whose keeping Christ did give the keys
Of this sweet flower; near whom, behold the Seer
That, ere he died, saw all the grievous times
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails
Was won. And near unto the other rests
The leader, under whom on manna fed
The ungrateful nation, fickle and perverse.
On the other part, facing to Peter, lo,
Where Anna sits, so well content to look
On her loved Daughter that, with moveless eye,
She chants the loud " Hosanna " : while opposed
To the first father of your mortal kind,
Is Lucia, at whose hest thy lady sped,
When on the edge of ruin closed thine eye.

But (for the vision hasteneth to an end)
Here we break off, as the good workman doth
That shapes the cloak according to the cloth;
And to the primal love our ken shall rise;
That thou mayst penetrate the brightness, far
As sight can bear thee. Yet alas, in sooth,
Beating thy pennons, thinking to advance,
Thou backward fallest. Grace then, must first be gained —
Her grace whose might can help thee. Thou in prayer
Seek her: and with affection, whilst I sue,
Attend, and yield me all thy heart."