Page:Dreams and Images.djvu/200

 To have none else beside, That both might keep unflecked their virgin snows.

Yet by our God's great law Such marriage issue saw, As they who cast away may keep, Who sow not reap. In Chastity entombed His manhood bloomed, And children not of earth Had spotless birth. With might unmortal was he strong That he begot Of what was not, Within the barren womb of silence, song. Yea, many sons he had To make his sole heart glad— Romping the boundless meadows of the air, Skipping the cloudy hills, and climbing bold The heavens' nightly stairs of starry gold. Nay, winning heaven's door To mingle evermore With deathless troops of angel harmony. He filled the house of God With servants at his nod, A music-host of moving pagentry. Lo, this priest, and that an acolyte: Ah, such we name aright Creative art, To body forth love slumbering at the heart Fools, they who pity him, Imagine dim