Friday, December 24, 2010

A God and Yet a Man


A god and yet a man?
   A maid and yet a mother?
Wit wonders what wit can
   Conceive this or the other.

A god and can he die?
   A dead man, can he live?
What wit can well reply?
   What reason reason give?

God, truth itself, doth teach it.
   Man’s wit sinks too far under
By reason’s power to reach it.
   Believe and leave to wonder.

—Anonymous Fifteenth Century Verse

2 comments:

  1. In 1972, or 3, or 4, not sure which now, I found this poem in a Norton Anthology of poetry. It so captivated me that I still have it memorized. The only poem I ever memorized. I set it to music, and still sing it every Christmas, mostly to myself.

    What a glorious text, and how perfect that I found it again on a "Humble Blog." Such a precise definition of a reason for humility as this text represents can not be found any where else, in my opinion.

    Humanity is elevated by its, our, ability to contemplate such mystery. Yet, at once is also brought to spine tingling, mind spinning, soul stilling silence.

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  2. Thanks for sharing those thoughts, Tim!

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