Hail Mary

AMPHORA XI EVEN are the Spirits and the lamps are seven ; I saw a wonder in the house of heaven. Behold a woman girded with the sun Beneath whose feet the liquid moon did run ! Twelve were the stars that crowned that shining head Whereon the HOLY GHOST His silence shed, That so Her womb a SAVIOUR should environ To rule the nations with a rod of iron. I saw moreover how She bore the Child, And how the Dragon drave Her to the wild, Loosing a flood of venom ; but the earth Gaped and devoured it in her warrior girth. I saw red war in heaven ; Saint Michael fell With all his angels on the host of hell. Saint Michael ! praise to thee who didst prevail And pen the demons in the hollow vale ! S 36