Poem by Louise Imogen Guiney

A Madonna of Domenico Ghirlandajo

LET thoughts go hence as from a mountain spring,
Of the great dust of battle clean and whole,
And the wild birds that have no nest nor goal
Fold in a young man’s breast their trancèd wing;
For thou art made of purest Light, a thing
Art gave, beyond her own devout control;
And Light upon thy seeing, suffering soul
Hath wrought a sign for many journeying;
Our sign. As up a wayside, after rain,
When the blown beeches purple all the height
And clouds sink to the sea-marge, suddenly
The autumn sun (how soft, how solemn-bright!)
Moves to the vacant dial, so is lain
God’s meaning Hand, thou chosen, upon thee.

1. The Still of the Year
2. Saint Florent-le-Vieil
3. Hylas
4. The Japanese Anemone
5. T. W. P. 1819-1892

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