THE ANNUNCIATION

A woman

[SCENE I.-The village street of Nazareth. In the distance goeth the tall figure of THE ANGEL. standeth gazing after him. To her entereth a neighbour woman, and they speak.]

First Woman

WHO

HO was it went as I came down, With silver feet and golden gown, And on his head a glory crown

Fine as the evening star?

Yonder's the very one. He goes
Light-winged, and ruddier than the rose,
His lily's whiter than the snows
Or the swan's pinions are.

The irised doves that lightly sit
About our steeple, downward flit,
And step by him on scarlet feet,

To make their duteous bow. Round him the light grows; and the lark Sings as to call the day from dark, And far away seem care and cark

From our small Nazareth now.

Second Woman

Gossip, I dreaming sat and spun
My linen in the morning sun.
Thou knowest I have no little one.

The house was still and bright:

nuncia tion

The An- Yet my heart ached to hear the noise
They used to make, my two dead boys;
There was the shelf with all their toys
Put from my aching sight.

I hungered for the toil they made,
When in my door there came a shade
Or light perhaps, I unafraid,

Looked up and saw his grace.

And shading then mine eyes did speak,
Though all the glory made me weak:
Great Lord, what is it that you seek
In this unworthy place?

First Woman

What answered he?

Second Woman

Most sweet and fair,

He said: I am a wayfarer

By fields of earth and fields of air,
Sad mother, and no Lord.

I turned and set a chair, and laid
Before him wine and wheaten bread,
And cherries white and cherries red
And water in a gourd.

First Woman

Did he partake?

Second Woman

He drank; and gave

His thanks, as sweet as when you lave
Tired feet within the sparkling wave,
So fell they on my heart.

nuncia= tion

Then asked he me where lived the man The An-
Joachim, and his good wife Anne,
And took his lily and staff again,
And blessing, did depart.

Tbird Woman (enteretb)

Say, have ye seen him? As I came
Up from the well, weary and lame,
One with the amber hair like flame
Dazzled, and passed me by.

There was a sudden burst of song,
And bells in heaven pealed loud and long;
What marvels while the day is young
Are wrought in earth and sky?

How he was clad I know not. Eyes
That saw that Bird of Paradise
In plumage all of gold and price,

Still ache from that fine sight.

Since he hath passed my foot hath rest;
The sick child crying on my breast
Sleeps like a young bird in the nest,
And all the world is light.

Who was he?

First Woman

Rachel here can say.

His foot was on her floor of clay;
(That floor belike was blest to-day);
His hand was on her head.

Second Woman

I only know what he did seem.
He sought our neighbour Joachim;
But what his embassy with him

The great lord has not said.

The An- Tbird Woman

nuncia- Our neighbour Joachim he hath The fairest child in Nazareth,

tion

A lily snatched from sin and death,
Mary, his tender girl.

At evening in her garden close
She tends her lily and her rose,
Sweetest where many a sweet thing
blows,

A pure and perfect pearl.

First Woman

Dove's eyes are hers, and the dove's
heart,

And lips whence words of kindness start,
Lonely and lovely, set apart

For some most favoured lot.

A living lily that our God
Tends in a garden off the road

Where never a foot of man hath trod,
And evil weeds spring not.

Second Woman

What if some king from over seas
Hath heard what pearl of price she is,
And here hath sent his embassies
Entreating her sweet hand?

Then would he take and set her on
A burning diamond for her throne
And weave the stars to make her crown
In his most splendid land.