Ave Maria Gratia Plena
Was this His coming! I had hoped to see A scene of wondrous glory, as was told Of some great God who in a rain of gold Broke open bars and fell on Danae: Or a dread vision as when Semele Sickening for love and unappeased desire Prayed to see God's clear body, and the fire Caught her brown limbs and slew her utterly: With such glad dreams I sought this holy place, And now with wondering eyes and heart I stand Before this supreme mystery of Love: Some kneeling girl with passionless pale face, An angel with a lily in his hand, And over both the white wings of a Dove.
Ave Maria Gratia Plena - meaning Summary
Expectation Meets Humble Revelation
The speaker anticipates a dramatic, mythic revelation but instead encounters a quiet, ordinary scene in a chapel: a pale kneeling girl, an angel with a lily, and a dove. The poem contrasts grand, violent mythical visions of divine contact with a simple Christian image, reframing the sacred as intimate and tender. The speaker’s wonder lies in recognizing love’s "supreme mystery" revealed without spectacle.
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