In Vast Compassion Humanward

Annunciation
(From the picture by Botticelli)
by Ethel Allen Murphy

Kneeling in prayer, her spirit rapt above,
She meets with God, Who bendeth, brooding low,
In vast compassion humanward, and so,
There comes upon her life the power of Love:
Rising — behold! with pinions like a dove,
An angel with a rod where row on row
Of chaliced lilies spill supernal glow,—
Which all her thought to wonder mute doth move.
Then falls upon the rapture of her soul,
Dimly some vision of Gethsemane,
Athwart-the Resurrection's shining goal,
And with uplifted hand she pleads as One
Shall pray in night of darkest agony,
"This cup remove,—yet, Lord, Thy Will be done."