Father Ryan also wrote several works of prose, chief amongst which
is that entitled, "A Crown for Our Queen". Like his poem, "Last of May",
this book was intended as a loving tribute to Mary, the Mother of God,
whom he wished to honor as the highest type and grandest embodiment
of womanhood. If Father Ryan failed to make this work worthy
of the exalted subject -- an opinion by no means expressed --
it was not from any lack of good-will and earnest purpose on his part.
With him tender affection for the Queen of Heaven was a pure
and holy sentiment, a sublime, and ennobling act of piety.
He saw in her lofty and immaculate beauty the true ideal of woman;
and this explains the deep reverence and delicate sentiment
of respect and sympathy which he exhibited towards all women.
Poetical sentiment and religious feeling he thus happily blended,
as they should ever be, directing and influencing man's action
in his relations and intercourse with woman.
Three essentially poetical sentiments exist in man,
says a distinguished writer: The love of God, the love of woman,
and the love of country -- the religious, the human,
and the political sentiment. For this reason, continues the same writer,
wherever the knowledge of God is darkened, wherever the face of woman
is veiled, wherever the people are captive or enslaved, there poetry
is like a flame which, for want of fuel, exhausts itself and dies out.
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