While yet it was the Empire of the Night, <br />And Stars still check'r'd Darkness with their Light, <br />From Temples round the cheerful Bells did ring, <br />But with the Peales a churlish Storm did sing. <br />I slumbr'd; and the Heavens like things did show, <br />Like things which I had seen and heard below. <br />Playing on Harps Angels did singing fly, <br />But through a cloudy and a troubl'd Sky, <br /> <br />Some fixt a Throne, and Royal Robes display'd, <br />And then a Massie Cross upon it laid. <br />I wept: and earnestly implor'd to know, <br />Why Royal Ensigns were disposed so. <br />An Angel said, The Emblem thou hast seen, <br />Denotes the Birth-Day of a Saint and Queen. <br />Ah, Glorious Minister, I then reply'd, <br />Goodness and Bliss together do reside <br />In Heaven and thee, why then on Earth below <br />These two combin'd so rarely do we know? <br />He said, Heaven so decrees: and such a Sable Morne <br />Was that, in which the Son of God was borne. <br />Then Mortal wipe thine Eyes, and cease to rave, <br />God darkn'd Heaven, when He the World did save.<br /><br />Anne Killigrew<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-birth-day-of-queen-katherine/
