Our single entrant in the race
Of getting hailed as full of grace
Outscored the angels, took the prize,
And won all honors in the skies.
From Revelation one infers
She had no close competitors: —
So Gabriel declared when he
Announced the news upon his knee.
No grudged encomium did he give,
And spared no wild superlative
Acclaiming her whose blood and breath
Was native to our Nazareth.
Beyond the level and the line
Where stars explode and suns decline,
Where moons and meteors cease to whirl,
Our little globe enthroned a girl.
Were there no Mary, this would be
A jungle poem probably,
Writ by a Zulu babbling rhymes
To snakes in sultry summertimes.
— From Boundaries
