Page:A channel passage and other poems (IA channelpassageot00swinrich).pdf/67

 Sprang sudden as flame, and kindled the darkness of faith with love, And the hollow of hell from beneath shone, quickened of heaven from above. Yea, hell at her word grew heaven, as she prayed that if God thought well She there might stand in the gateway, that none might pass into hell. Not Hermes, guardian and guide, God, herald, and comforter, shed Such lustre of hope from the life of his light on the night of the dead. Not Pallas, wiser and mightier in mercy than Rome's God shone, Wore ever such raiment of love as the soul of a saint put on. So blooms as a flower of the darkness a star of the midnight born, Of the midnight's womb and the blackness of darkness, and flames like morn.