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    an painting of red and gold material

    New Prince, New Pompe

    By Robert Southwell

    December 25, 2020
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    • Sr Margaret Kerry, fsp

      Thank you! Your site has such great posts. I share them on all my social media. Sr Margaret

    Behould a sely tender Babe,
    In freesing winter nighte,
    In homely manger trembling lies;
    Alas, a pitious sighte!

    The inns are full, no man will yelde
    This little pilgrime bedd;
    But forc’d He is with sely beastes
    In cribb to shroude His headd.

    This stable is a Prince’s courte,
    The cribb His chaire of State;
    The beastes are parcell of His pompe,
    The wodden dish His plate.

    The persons in that poore attire
    His royall liveries weare;
    The Prince Himself is come from heaven,
    This pompe is prisèd there.

    With joy approch, O Christian wighte!
    Do homage to thy Kinge;
    And highly prise His humble pompe
    Which He from heaven doth bringe.

    Icon of the Nativity of Christ by Theophanes the Cretan

    Icon of the Nativity of Christ by Theophanes the Cretan, 1546 Image public domain


    Source: Alexander Balloch Grossart, ed., The Complete Poems of Robert Southwell (England: private circulation, 1872), 107.

    Contributed By RobertSouthwell Robert Southwell

    A Jesuit priest, Robert Southwell (ca. 1561–1595) was a poet and underground Catholic missionary to his native England. Arrested as a traitor, he endured three years of imprisonment, including torture, before his execution. He was canonized as a martyr in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

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