Venus rose in balanced motion,

Goddess of all bland emotion;

But she leaped a shape of light,

Radiating love's delight,

From the sculptor's brain to be

Sphered in immortality.

New spirit-yearnings for a heavenlier mood

Call for a love more pitiful and tender,

And 'neath the painter's touch blooms forth in splendour

The image of transfigured motherhood.

[53]

All hopes of all glad women who have smiled

In adoration on their first-born child

Here smile through one glad woman made immortal;

All tears of all sad women through whose heart

Has pierced the edge of sorrow's sevenfold dart

Lie weeping with her at death's dolorous portal.

For in married hues whose splendour

Bodies forth the gloom and grandeur

Of life's pageant, tragic, tender,

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