SALVE REGINA

SALVE REGINA

Even as children all of us learned of sorrow,

but some of us learned with method in a school

where even children study why tomorrow

will bring them tears.  Thus I, too, heard the rule

from a voice explaining that any exile must languish

away from home when night draws down on him;

I was given the formula for the hour of anguish,

saying it now while day grows grey and grim

across the years I hear St Bernard singing –[1]

out of the valley of tears wherein I grope –

his burden of grief: just as I now am bringing

my grief to her our Sweetness and our Hope

and shadows lift today as long ago,

above New York as once above Clairvaux.

Sister M St Virginia BVM

In: Robert.  1946

Used with permission

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[1] Some people, like this author, believe St Bernard of Clairvaux to have written the prayer Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen).  Others, like Sister St Miriam of the Temple CND (cf page 80) ascribe the authorship of this poem to St Herman the Cripple.