Caroling Dusk/The Black Madonna

by Albert Rice

THE BLACK MADONNA

Not as the white nations
 know thee
  O Mother!

But swarthy of cheek
 and full-lipped as the
  child races are.

Yet thou art she,
 the Immaculate Maid,
  and none other,

Crowned in the stable
 at Bethlehem,
  hailed of the star.

See where they come,
 thy people,
  so humbly appealing,

From the ancient lands
 where the olden faiths
  had birth.

Tired dusky hands
 uplifted for thy
  healing.

Pity them, Mother,
 the untaught
  of earth.