Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UPON THE NATIVITY OF OUR SAVIOUR AND SACRAMENT THEN RECEIVED, by WILLIAM HAMMOND


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UPON THE NATIVITY OF OUR SAVIOUR AND SACRAMENT THEN RECEIVED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: See from his watery tropic how the sun
Last Line: Born to our flesh, into his spirit we.
Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The


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.





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