| W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895. | | | | Simeon | | Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) |
| | | IN the huge temple, deck’d by Herod’s pride, | |
| Who fain would bribe a God he ne’er believed, | |
| Kneels a meek woman, that hath once conceived, | |
| Tho’ she was never like an earthly bride. | |
| And yet the stainless would be purified, | 5 |
| And wash away the stain that yet was none, | |
| And for the birth of her immaculate Son, | |
| With the stern rigour of the law complied: | |
| The duty paid received its due reward | |
| When Simeon bless’d the baby in her arm; | 10 |
| And though he plainly told her that a sword | |
| Must pierce her soul, she felt no weak alarm, | |
| For that for which a Prophet thank’d the Lord, | |
| Once to have seen, could never end in harm. | | | | |
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