Tixall Poetry/On the Translation of the House of Loretto

by unknown author

On the Translation of

The House of Loretto.

 

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When the misterious chamber first did move
From Jewry vales into the aire above,
  A quire of angels held it downe,
  Or to the highest heavens't had flowne.
    Gabrieli led on before,
    Towards the Hesperian shore,
  Whence west winds breathed in their face,
  Not to resist, but to embrace.
Ore his owne seas then Dedalus might descry
A labirinth itselfe of wonders fly;
Rhodes' great Colossus durst not aske a stay,
For here imensity contracted lay.
  The virgin mother's spouse's roome
  At unchast Paphos would not come;
  Truth's selfe disclaim'd his seate
  Should dwell in lying Crete.
Delos in vain look'd up with hope awhile;
The flying house past ore the floating isle.
Unhappy easterne nations! dayly thus
Suns rise with you, but alwaise make to us.
  The never-erring chair is come
  From your Antioch to our Rome;
    Poore Nazareth's sole blis
    Now too translated is:
  On fair Loretto's hill it stands,
  Thither convey'd by angells hands;
Where the same roofe, that in our father's age
A pilgrim was, is now a pilgrimage.