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"And I myself will teach to him,
I myself, lying so,

The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hushed and slow,

And find some knowledge at each pause,
Or some new thing to know."

(Ah sweet! Just now, in that bird's song,

Strove not her accents there

Fain to be hearkened?

When those bells

Possessed the midday air,

Was she not stepping to my side

Down all the trembling stair?)

"We two," she said, "will seek the groves Where the Lady Mary is,

With her five handmaidens, whose names

Are five sweet symphonies, Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, Margaret, and Rosalys.

"Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
And foreheads garlanded;

Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread,

To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.

"He shall fear, haply, and be dumb; Then I will lay my cheek

To his, and tell about our love,

Not once abashed or weak;
And the dear Mother will approve
My pride, and let me speak.

"Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
To Him round whom all souls
Kneel, the unnumbered ransomed heads
Bowed with their aureoles :
And angels meeting us shall sing
To their citherns and citoles.

"There will I ask of Christ the Lord Thus much for him and me:

Only to live as once on earth

At peace, only to be,

As then awhile, forever now

Together, I and he."

She gazed, and listened, and then said,

Less sad of speech than mild,

"All this is when he comes." She ceased. The light thrilled past her,

Filled with angels in strong level lapse.
Her eyes prayed, and she smiled.

(I saw her smile.) But soon their flight in distant spheres ;

Was vague

And then she laid her arms along

The golden barriers,

And laid her face between her hands,

And wept. (I heard her tears.)

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