Summer in Winter!

'The Nativity', c.1433-1434, att. Zanobi Strozzi (1412–1468), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Come, we shepherds, whose blest sight
Hath met Love’s noon in nature’s night;
Come, lift we up our loftier song,
And wake the sun that lies too long.

Gloomy night embraced the place
Where the noble infant lay:
The Babe looked up and showed his face;
In spite of darkness, it was day:-
It was the Day, Sweet! and did rise
Not from the east, but from thine eyes.

We saw thee in thy balmy nest,
Young dawn of our eternal day;
We saw thine eyes break from their east
And chase the trembling shades away;
We saw thee (and we bless the sight),
We saw thee by thine own sweet light.

Welcome, all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span!
Summer in Winter! Day in night!
Heaven in earth! and God in man!
Great Little One, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.

Richard Crashaw, c.1613-1649