I have at times observed, when day is new,
A rosy glow suffuse the eastern sky,
With elsewhere all of heaven serenely blue;

And seen the sun emerge so tempered by
The gentle mist, its potency is drowned
And one can gaze on it with naked eye:

Just so, within those blossoms all around –
That cloud cast up by saintly hands to spread
And fall and deck the chariot and the ground –

Adorned with olive chaplet on her head,
A lady came, who wore a veil of white:
Her cape was green; her dress was flaming red.

My trembling spirit, which within her sight –
Albeit years before – had always bowed
In mingled trepidation and delight,

Was, by her veil, denied her features now;
Yet through her potent unseen virtue, felt
Again that ancient love’s tremendous power.