Angel Help

This rare tablet doth include

Poverty with Sanctitude.

Past midnight this poor maid hath spun,

And yet the work is not half done,

Which must supply from earnings scant

A feeble bed-rid parents want.

Her sleep-charged eyes exemption ask

And Holy hands take up the task;

Unseen the rock and spindle ply,

And do her earthly drudgery.

Sleep, saintly poor one! sleep, sleep on;

And, waking, find they labours done.

Perchance she knows it by her dreams;

Her eye hath caught the golden gleams,

Angelic presence testifying,

That round her everywhere are flying;

Ostents from which she may presume,

That much of heaven is in the room.

Skirting her own bright hair they run,

And to the sunny add more sun:

Now on that aged face they fix,

Streaming from the Crucifix;

The flesh-cloggd spirit disabusing,

Death-disarming sleeps infusing,

Prelibations, foretastes high,

And equal thoughts to live or die.

Gardener bright from Edens bower,

Tend with care that lily flower;

To its leaves and root infuse

Heavens sunshine, Heavens dews.

Tis a type, and tis a pledge,

Of a crowning privilege.

Careful as that lily flower,

This Maid must keep her precious dower;

Live a sainted Maid, or die

Martyr to virginity.