RPO -- William Wordsworth : The Virgin

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

The Virgin

1Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost

2With the least shade of thought to sin allied.

3Woman! above all women glorified,

4Our tainted nature's solitary boast;

5Purer than foam on central ocean tost;

6Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn

7With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon

8Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;

9Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,

10Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,

11As to a visible Power, in which did blend

12All that was mixed and reconciled in thee

13Of mother's love with maiden purity,

14Of high with low, celestial with terrene!

Notes

1] This is from a series of 132 sonnets mostly written in 1821. "It struck me that certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country might advantageously be presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I took up the subject, and what I now offer to the reader was the result" (Wordsworth, with reference to the whole series). In later editions these poems were known as Ecclesiastical Sonnets.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: William Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822).
First publication date: 1822
RPO poem editor: J. R. MacGillivray
RP edition: 3RP 2.398.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/20

Composition date: 1821
Rhyme: abbaaccadeeffd

Other poems by William Wordsworth