Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/29

  Fed by each new-born infant's hand,
    With Heaven's air,
  With Heaven's food,
The crown of purest purity revealed,
Virginity eternal signed and sealed
  Upon all motherhood!

III.

Oh, not alone because His name is Christ,
    Oh, not alone because Judea waits
  This man-child for her King, the Star stands still.
    The Babe has mates.
 Childhood shall be forever on the earth;
And no man who has hurt or lightly priced
    So much as one sweet hair
      On one sweet infant's head,
  But shall be cursed! Henceforth all things fulfil
 Protection to each sacred birth.
    No spot shall dare
      Refuse a shelter. Beasts shall tread
  More lightly; and distress,
  And poverty, and loneliness,
Yea, and all darkness, shall devise
To shield each place wherein an infant lies.
  And wisdom shall come seeking it with gift,
And worship it with myrrh and frankincense;
  And kings shall tremble if it lift
    Its hand against a throne.
    But mighty in its own
Great feebleness, and safe in God's defence,
  No harm can touch it, and no death can kill,
  Without its Father's will!