'Mid radiant skies
Thou gather'st heavenly roses.
The Italian Franciscan monk Giacomo of Verona also wrote poems to the
"Queen of the Heavenly Meadows". "On the right hand of Christ sits Mary,
more lovely than the flowers in the meadows and the half-opened
rose-buds. Before her face stand the heavenly hosts singing jubilant
songs in her praise, but she adorns her knights with garlands and gives
them roses." Just as Pons of Capduelh describes the transfiguration of
his earthly mistress, Jacopone describes Mary's ascent into Heaven,
where she is received by the angels singing songs of jubilee, their
_sanctus, sanctus, sanctus_, replaced by a joyful _sancta, sancta,
sancta_--a goddess has been received in the place of God.
Gottfried of Strassburg, the author of the sensuous and passionate epic
poem "Tristan and Isolde," composed a long poem in honour of Mary
couched in the well-known terms of the loving worshipper:
Thou vale of roses,--violet-dell,
Thou joy that makest hearts to swell,
Eternal well
Of valour; Queen of Heaven!
Thou rosy dawn, thou morning-red,
Thou steadfast friend when hope has fled,
The living bread,
Oh! Lady, hast thou given.
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