Luke 2:16 KJV And they came with haste, and found
Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
Added 131224 1528 { From Rev 12:1-6 KJV (the
poets probable inspiration) 4 […] and the dragon stood before the woman which
was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she
brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: […]
}
This
little Babe so few days old is come to rifle Satan's fold;
All hell
doth at his presence quake, though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmèd wise the gates of hell he will surprise.
With tears he fights and wins the field, his naked breast stands for a shield;
His battering shot are babish cries, his arrows looks of weeping eyes,
His martial ensigns Cold and Need, and feeble Flesh his warrior's steed.
His camp is pitchèd in a stall, his bulwark but a broken wall;
The crib his trench, haystacks his stakes; of shepherds he his muster makes;
And thus, as sure his foe to wound, the angels' trumps alarum sound.
My soul, with Christ join thou in fight, stick to the tents that he hath pight.
Within his crib is surest ward, this little Babe will be thy guard.
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy, then flit not from this heavenly Boy.
- Robert Southwell,
Robert
Southwell (c. 1561 – 21 February 1595), also Saint Robert Southwell, was an
English Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order. He was also a poet and
clandestine missionary in post-Reformation England.
After being arrested and tortured by Sir Richard
Topcliffe, Southwell was tried and convicted of high treason for his links to
the Holy See. On 21 February 1595, Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered at
Tyburn.
In 1970, he was canonized by Pope Paul VI as one
of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Oxford standard
reference on the literature of the period, stated therein that if Southwell had
lived longer, he might well have become a major Elizabethan poet.
Added 131224 1528 From
Ben Jonson remarked to Drummond of Hawthornden
that “so he had written that piece of [Southwell's], 'The Burning Babe,' he
would have been content to destroy many of his.” [15] In fact, there is a
strong case to be made for Southwell's influence on his contemporaries and
successors, among them Drayton, Lodge, Nashe, Herbert, Crashaw, and
especially Shakespeare, who seems to have known his work, both poetry and
prose, extremely well.[16]
Metaphysical
poetry / Major Poets
/ John Donne (1572–1631) George Herbert (1593–1633) Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) Robert Southwell (c. 1561–1595)
Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649) Thomas Traherne (1636/1637–1674) Henry Vaughan
(1622–1695)
"O dying souls, behold your living spring; O
dazzled eyes, behold your sun of grace; Dull ears, attend what word this Word
doth bring; Up, heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace. From death, from dark,
from deafness, from despair: This life, this light, this Word, this joy
repairs."—from "The Nativity of Christ"
N.B. Do not miss "The Nativity of
Christ" on my next weblog post, Lord willing, or at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-nativity-of-christ/
I2C 131223a Luk 2v16 Foil foes with joy / I2C /
131223 1822 / Luke 2:16 Foil foes with joy
