Advent reflections

Robert Traill Rose, "Primordium Vitae," 1899

 Salvation to all that will is nigh;
  That All, which always is all everywhere,
  Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
  Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
  Lo! faithful Virgin, yields himself to lie
  In prison, in the womb; and though he there
  Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He'll wear,
  Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.
  Ere by the spheres time was created thou
  Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;
  Whom thou conceivest, conceived; yea, thou art now
  Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother,
  Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room
  Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb

  --John Donne, "Annunciation"