And, if our faith had given us nothing more

Than this Example, of all Womanhood,

So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good,

So patient, so peaceful, loyal, loving pure –

This were enough to prove it higher and truer

Than all the creeds the world had known before.

Virgin, who lovest the poor and lonely,

If the loud cry of a mother’s heart

Can ever ascend to where thou art,

Into thy blessed hands and holy

Receive my prayer of praise and thanksgiving.

Let the hands that bore our Savior bear it

Into the awful presence of God;

For thy feet with holiness are shod,

And, if thou bearest it, he will hear it.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What qualities does Longfellow cite that underscore for him why Mary is the “Example of all Womanhood?” How have we seen these virtues expressed in the excerpts from A Woman Wrapped with Silence? Which of these virtues do I most need to acquire? What does the poet admit is the benefit of offering our prayers to Jesus through Mary, His Mother?