Friday, April 2, 2010

Good Friday Poem: Quarles

Francis Quarles put out an amazing amount of poetry on sacred subjects in his Emblems, Divine and Moral. You can read the whole thing on Google Books. Each section includes a woodcut, a quotation from Scripture, a long poem (the emblem), one or two quotations from a church father on the theme, and then a short poem (the epigram) that sums it all up memorably. Here is Epigram 2 from the Third Book. I think I will hang my Good Friday homily on its skeleton.

Rebellious fool, what has thy folly done?
Controll'd thy God, and crucify'd his Son?
How sweetly has the Lord of life deceiv'd thee!
Thou shedd'st his blood, and that shed blood has
sav'd thee.


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