SEE from his watery tropic how the Sun Approacheth by a double motion! The same flight, tending to the western seas, Wheels northward by insensible degrees; So this blest day bears to our intellect, As its bright fire, a duplicate respect: None but a two-fac'd Janus can be guest, And fit himself unto this double feast, That must before jointly the manger see, And view behind the execrable tree; Here the blest Virgin's living milk, and there The fatal streams of the Son's blood appear; Crowns at his tender feet in Bethle'm lie; Thorns bind his manly brows in Calvary; Th' ashamed Sun from this his light withdrew; A new-born Star the other joy'd to shew; To furnish out this feast, lo! in the pot Death here consults the salting antidote: But lest the sad allay should interfere, And corrupt this day's smile into a tear, This very death makes up a fuller mirth, Bequeathing to the worthy guest new birth; As to the mystic head, beseemingly, So to each member gives nativity: The difference only this, the Deity Born to our flesh, into his spirit we. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT DO I CARE by SARA TEASDALE THE SPARROW by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR WAITING - BOTH by THOMAS HARDY THE IRISH PEASANT TO HIS MISTRESS by THOMAS MOORE THE SMACK IN SCHOOL by WILLIAM PITT PALMER THE OLD MAN AND JIM by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY LOVE DISSEMBLED, FR. AS YOU LIKE IT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ON THE DEATH OF THE REV. MR. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 1770 by PHILLIS WHEATLEY |