Madonna poem – Alfred Austin

Let me, calm face, remain

For ever in these sweet sequestered nooks,

Remote from pain,

Where leafy laurustinus overlooks

The blue abounding main.

Ne’er will I crave, I vow,

Your loveliness despite, that we may stand

More nigh than now;

You, with the fresh-plucked roses in your hand,

And I with inclined brow.

With air, and sea, and sky,

And penetrative music on the beach,

All that is high,

And far, and holy, and beyond our reach,

I you identify.

Then, lady, let me stay,

Here where no storm nor surge of discontent

Can find its way;

Hearkening your holy admonitions, blent

With murmurs from the bay.