The Rise of The Oxford Movement and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the Nineteenth Century and the Coinciding Renascence of Marian Poetry (Ten); Robert Stephen Hawker

The Anglican Vicar Robert Stephen hawker [1803-1875] used quatrains to express his praise of the Blessed Virgin.
  His poem is called Aishah Schechina, which means Pillar of Cloud, an appellation bestowed on Mary throughout the centuries.

       AISHAH SCHECHINA

       A shape, like folded light, embodied air
       Yet wreathed with flesh, and warm:
       All that of heaven is feminine and fair,
       Moulded in visible form,
    
       She stood, the Lady Shechinah of earth,
       A chancel for the sky:
       Where woke, to breath and beauty, God's own Birth
       For men to see Him by.

       Round her, too pure to mingle with the day,
       Light, that was life, abode;                                      10
       Folded within her fibres meekly lay
       The link of boundless God.

       So linked, so blent, that when, with pulse fulfilled
       Moved but that Infant Hand,
       Far, far away, His conscious Godhead thrilled,
       And stars might understand.

       Lo! where they pause, with inter-gathering rest,
       The Threefold, and the One;
       And lo, He binds them to her orient breast,
       His manhood girded on.                                          20

       The zone, where two glad worlds for ever meet,
       Beneath that bosom ran:
       Deep in that womb the conquering Paraclete
       Smote Godhead on to man.

       Sole scene among the stars, where, yearning, glid
       The Threefold and the One;
       Her God upon her lap, the Virgin Bride,
       Her awful Child, her Son!

In this sublime poem, the poet, while avoiding the pitfalls of Mariolatry, gives due praise to Mary as containing all that of heaven is feminine and fair [3], and thanks the Holy Spirit, the conquering Paraclete/ (who) smote Godhead on to man [23-24], for the graces lavished upon her.
 
Glad worlds 
  Hawker simply gives honour to God, the Threefold and the One [26], who binds the Trinity to the Blessed Virgin's orient breast [19]. Mary's womb is an eternal meeting place for two glad worlds [21].
  Here Hawker emphasizes that Mary's world is human and God's is celestial.
  By implication therefore it is for the Creator to shower this created being with all the graces He owns.
  Mary's gracious acceptance of these leads to the ultimate privilege: that she, the Virgin Bride [27], can hold her God upon her lap [27].

Dr Luky Whittle