Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Poetry Wednesday--John Donne

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His

well-belov'd imprisonment,
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the

world to come;
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn

no room?
~From Nativity by John Donne

I love how this poem talks about Christ being "cloistered" and "imprisoned" in the womb, like He will be imprisoned in the grave.  But He has broken through both types of imprisonment and, in so doing, freed us.

6 comments:

Michele said...

happy new year my friend. may God bless you abundantly in the year to come, and may your Saint for 2011 watch over you and interceed on your behalf.

Staying in Balance said...

Thank you, Michele! I'm going to have to tr to learn more about her this year.

Magister Christianus said...

I absolutely LOVE Donne! This is a great passage. His imagery and language is so muscular and bold. Love it, love it, love it. Thanks for posting!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Dymphna for this snippet.

The inn is like so many wanting souls who do not know Who they are missing. Thank God, Jesus is now knocking, knocking,knocking.

TACParent said...

"There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the
world to come"
That's my favorite part -- realizing that He made Himself man described as "weak enough" really gives it meaning.

Staying in Balance said...

I didn't know Donne would elicit such a positive response! I'm going to have to look into him further.

He really does use the English language well--each word being there for a particular reason.

Even this small snippet can be read and pondered again and again.

Dymphna's favorite quotes


"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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