Marian Poetry: The Virgin, "Tainted Nature's Solitary Boast"

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem written William Wordsworth entitled “The Virgin,” an Ecclesiastical Sonnet and tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, "tainted nature's solitary boast."


Through this beautiful verse, we are reminded of the purity of Our Blessed Mother, and her power to reconcile original sin with the birth of Jesus.  Mary, woman above all women glorified!

The Virgin
Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!