THE Abbess on the psalter's parchment rim
Is painting doves and griffins met in love;
And ivy twined with olive, and, above,
Against the azure sky flit cherubim. She paints the Babe asleep in straw, the glad
Shepherds with carven crooks, and the three Kings
Whom from the radiant East the star y-ladde,
With frankincense and golden offerings. Sweet reveries paints she with her pious hand,
Grave John the Baptist thin in ragged locks,
And in the daisied, mystic meadow-land
Stands the Good Shepherd keeping his chaste flocks. And Christ's gashed head bends from the wall to bless
The cunning painting of the good Abbess.