[Transcriber's Notes:]
This text is derived from
http://archive.org/details/maycarolspoems00veregoog
Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book.
Dedicated to Fr. Richard Trout who brings his love of Christ and the Virgin Mary to life in his preaching at Corpus Christi Parish. "Thanks for the homilies."
[End Transcriber's Notes:]
By the same Author.
I.
THE SEARCH AFTER PEOSERPINE, and
Other Poems. 12mo 7s. 6d.
J. H. and J. Parker, Oxford and London.
II.
POEMS (MISCELLANEOUS AND SACRED).
Fcap. 8vo 4s. 6d.
Burns and Lambert, London.
{v}
The wisdom of the Church, which consecrates thefleeting seasons of Time to the interests of Eternity,has dedicated the month of May (the birthdayfestival, as it were, of Creation) to her who wasever destined in the Divine Counsels to become theMother of her Creator. It belongs to her, of course,as she is the representative of the Incarnation, andits practical exponent to a world but too apt toforget what it professes to hold. The followingPoems, written in her honour, are an attempt toset forth, though but in mere outline, each ofthem some one of the great Ideas or essentialPrinciples embodied in that all-embracing Mystery.On a topic so comprehensive, converse statements,at one time illustrating the highest excellence compatiblewith mere creaturely existence, at another,the infinite distance between the chief of creaturesand the Creator, may seem, at first sight, andto some eyes, contradictory, although in reality,mutually correlative. On an attentive perusal,however, that harmony which exists among themany portions of a single mastering Truth, canhardly fail to appear—and with it the scope andaim of this Poem.
{vi}
With the meditative, descriptive pieces havebeen interspersed. They are an attempt towardsa Christian rendering of external nature. Nature,like Art, needs to be spiritualised, unless it is toremain a fortress in the hands of an adverse Power.The visible world is a passive thing, which evertakes its meaning from something above itself.In Pagan times, it drew its interpretation fromPantheism; and to Pantheism—nay, to that Idolatrywhich is the popular application ofPantheism—it has still a secret, though restrainedtendency, not betrayed by literature alone. AWorld without Divinity, Matter without Soul, isintolerable to the human mind. Yet, on the otherhand, there is much in fallen human nature whichshrinks from the sublime thought of a Creator,and rests on that of a sheathed Divinity diffusedthroughout the universe, its life, not its maker.Mere personified elements, the Wood-God andRiver-Nymph, captivate the fancy and do notover-awe the soul. For a bias so seductive, nocure is to be found save in authentic Christianity,the only practical Theism. The whole truth, onthe long run, holds its own better than the halftruth; and minds repelled by the thought of aGod who stands a