KATHRINA
DR. J. G. HOLLAND'S WRITINGS.
Complete Works. 16 Volumes. Small 12mo.
Sold separately.
Bitter-Sweet
Kathrina
The Mistress of the Manse
Puritan's Guest and other Poems
Titcomb's Letters to Young People
Gold-Foil
Lessons in Life
Plain Talks on Familiar Subjects
Concerning the Jones Family
Every-Day Topics. First Series
Every-Day Topics. Second Series
Sevenoaks
The Bay Path
Arthur Bonnicastle
Miss Gilbert's Career
Nicholas Minturn
A POEM
BY
J. G. HOLLAND
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1893.
COPYRIGHT BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO.
1867
COPYRIGHT BY
J. G HOLLAND
1881
TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
I DEDICATE
"KATHRINA"
THE WORK OF MY HAND
TO
ELIZABETH
THE WIFE OF MY HEART
CONTENTS
PART I.
PART II.
PART III.
PART IV.
KATHRINA.
More human, more divine than we—
In truth, half human, half divine—
Is woman, when good stars agree
To temper with their beams benign
The hour of her nativity.
The fairest flower the green earth bears,
Bright with the dew and light of heaven,
Is, of the double life she wears,
The type, in grace and glory given
By soil and sun in equal shares.
True sister of the Son of Man:
True sister of the Son of God:
What marvel that she leads the van
Of those who in the path he trod,
Still bear the cross and wear the ban?
If God be in the sky and sea,
And live in light and ride the storm,
Then God is God, although He be
Enshrined within a woman's form;
And claims glad reverence from me.
So, as I worship Him in Christ,
And in the Forms of Earth and Air,
I worship Him imparadised,
And throned within her bosom fair
Whom vanity hath not enticed.
O! woman—mother! Woman—wife!—
The sweetest names that language knows!
Thy breast, with holy motives rife,
With holiest affection glows,
Thou queen, thou angel of my life!
Noble and fine in his degree