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...THE CHARGE AT SANTIAGO by WILLIAM HAMILTON HAYNE ITALIA, IO TI SALUTO!' by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 12. TO SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, BARONET by MARK AKENSIDE COQUETTE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH A WOMAN'S SONNETS: 1 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT YEARNING by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: MADAME LA MARQUISE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |