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. 		With the words "unto me show", this sonnet to St Mary Magdalen becomes a parable born out of the legend surrounding her.

These words also call into question the legitimacy of the speaker's faith as the speaker appears to take the matter of sinning lightly when implying that, either way, he or she will make it into heaven.

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Henry Constable (1562-1613)

  
 
   

created by Heather C. Milligan