The Days of the Visit

The Annunciation. Visit to Elisabeth. Magnificat.

(The Gospel History, Section 6)

And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned unto her house.

The Days of the Visit

(The Saviour of the World, Vol I Book I Poem IX)

Three happy months the Holy Women held—
In field, ’mid lonely hills, on quiet roof—
Sweet converse, of those things the prophets spake
Concerning Shiloh, and him, should go before.
Not yet had Mary shaped her lips to the Name
That is above all names; but in her heart,
“Jesus,” she breathed, tremulous with delight
And rosy joy—awful, for amazement wove,
With fear, the weft across her warp of love.

And, many a time, would they to Zacharias
Look for interpretation; who would write,
Being mute, the thing they asked of him; for he
Was learned in the Scriptures, being a priest:
“‘Goeth forth as bridegroom,’—shall Messias wed?”
“‘Meek, sitting upon ass,’ is this the King?”
“‘He is led as a lamb to the slaughter’—not my Son!
Nay, holy man of God, this cannot be—
The Ruler of His people shall not die
At the hands of the violent!” And Elizabeth,
“What meaneth ‘hills made low and valleys raised’?”
With many questionings came the Holy Women;
And he, the priest, who knew himself full learned,
Astonished at their understanding, owned
Him ignorant before them; but they held
Him wise.

Not all of themes, awful for woe,

August in dignity and suffering,
Or joyous beyond measure, did the two
Hold converse; but the common tender talk
That mothers use was theirs; and—as they spake
Of breast and milk and little children’s pains,
Each could have said she heard a cooing babe.
Thus, for three months: then, Mary returned home.

St. Luke i. 56.
“Goeth forth as Bridegroom.”—Ps. xix. 5.
“Meek, sitting upon ass.”—Zech. ix. 9.
“He is led as a lamb to the slaughter.”—Isa. liii. 7.
“Hills made low and valleys raised.”—Isa. xl. 4.