To St Mary Magdalen

  
  FOR few nights' solace in delicious bed
    Where heat of lust did kindle flames of hell,
    Thou nak'd on naked rock in desert cell
Lay thirty years, and tears of grief did shed.
But for that time thy heart there sorrowed
    Thou now in heaven eternally dost dwell,
    And for each tear which from thine eyes then fell,
A sea of pleasure now is rendered.
If short delights entice my heart to stray,
    Let me by thy long penance learn to know
How dear I should for trifling pleasures pay;
       And if I virtue's rough beginning shun,
Let thy eternal joys unto me show
       What high rewards by little pain is won. 		While the true identity of Mary Magdalene is still unclear, the Oxford Companion to Theology provides the following definition: "A follower of Jesus out of whom he cast seven devils, who ministered to him in Galilee (Luke 8.2). She remained close to the Cross...and she was the first to meet the risen Christ..."

The Catholic Encyclopaedia associates St Mary Magdalen with three distinct identities: "the sinner", the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and Mary Magdalen. For the purpose of this poem, Constable primarily identifies Mary Magdalene as "the sinner" (i.e. the prostitute). back

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Henry Constable (1562-1613)

  
 
   

created by Heather C. Milligan