Classic Poem

“Spotless maid, so meek and mild,”
then said I to that flower full fair,
“bring me to that blest abode,
and let me see thy blissful bower.”
That glory said: “God this forbiddeth;
within His tower thou may'st not come;
but from the Lamb I welcome thee
to a sight thereof, by His great grace.
That cloister clean may'st see without;
within—thy vigour availeth not
to enter in its street one foot,
save thou wert clean in spotlessness.