The Nativity

 

 

     

The Nativity

 
Unfold thy face, unmaske thy ray,
Shine forth, bright Sunne, double the day.
Let no malignant misty fume,
Nor foggy vapour, once presume
To interpose thy perfect sight
This day, which makes us love thy light
For ever better, that we could
That blessèd object once behold,
Which is both the circumference,
And center of all excellence:
Or rather neither, but a treasure
Unconfinèd without measure,
Whose center and circumference,
Including all preheminence,
Excluding nothing but defect,
And infinite in each respect,
Is equally both here and there,
And now and then and every where,
And alwaies, one, himselfe, the same,
A beeing farre above a name.
Draw neer then, and freely poure
Forth all thy light into that houre,
Which was crownèd with his birth,
And made heaven envy earth.
Let not his birth-day clouded be,
By whom thou shinest, and we see.

 

Christopher Harvey 

Reading this poem is like opening a treasure chest in a forgotten room and finding the light of the 16th century shining out of it.

Time melts, barriers dissolve, Christopher Harvey speaks.

The brightness of his words! 

I love the lines - "that object at once the center and the circumference of all excellence, Or rather neither, but a treasure unconfined without measure..."  Attempting to describe the superlative nature of God, he then has to retract, realizing his scope is too small.

(And isn't that still the problem? The marvel being too big, and our imaginations not widewild enough, even five centuries later.)

And this - "By whom thou shinest, and we see." A reminder of the mysterious quality of light itself - we see light, and by it we see. Psalm 36:9 says, For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." Jesus Christ, the sun and subject of this poem, calls himself "the Light of the world". Light as a metaphor for knowledge, for clarity, for joy, for the  manifestation of beauty, for guidance, for the means of growth, for warmth, for comfort. Jesus is the living, breathing, walking embodiment of all these.

As the poet-prophet Isaiah wrote, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light."

Centuries later, Christopher Harvey's words still echo that hope.

"Shine forth, bright Sunne, double the day!"