Felicia Hemans in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Volume 33 1833/The Women of Jerusalem at the Cross

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 33, Page 806


XIII.

THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM AT THE CROSS.

Like those pale stars of tempest-hours, whose gleam
    Waves calm and constant on the rocking mast,
Such by the Cross doth your bright lingering seem,
    Daughters of Zion! faithful to the last!
    Ye, through the darkness o'er the wide earth cast
By the death-cloud within the Saviour's eye,
    Ev'n till away the Heavenly Spirit pass'd,
Stood in the shadow of his agony.
O blessed Faith! a guiding lamp, that hour,
Was lit for Woman's heart; to her, whose dower
    Is all of love and suffering from her birth:
Still hath your act a voice—through fear, through strife,
Bidding her bind each tendril of her life,

To that which her deep soul hath owned of holiest worth.