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!
The Virgin - form Summary
A Devotional Sonnet Form
This poem is a sonnet from Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets that uses the sonnet's tight structure to present a devotional portrait of the Virgin Mary. Within compact fourteen lines, elevated imagery and contrasts—motherhood and maiden purity, celestial and terrene—are compressed into a single devotional argument. The sonnet form channels praise into a concentrated culminating thought, asking readers to view Mary as a reconciliatory, intercessory figure embodying humanity's ideal virtues.
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