Nativitie

I recently received a book of poetry by John Donne as an early Christmas gift and I absolutely adore it! I first came across one of his metaphysical poems a few months ago and fell in love. I have to be honest though, a lot of the language is entirely over my head. While that doesn't make for an easy read it does make it a sort of investigative activity that requires me to do a little research. One thing I learned on Wikipedia (clearly I use only the best sources...) today is:

"John Donne is considered a master of the metaphysical conceit, an extended metaphor that combines two vastly different ideas into a single idea, often using imagery.[7] An example of this is his equation of lovers with saints in "The Canonization." Unlike the conceits found in other Elizabethan poetry, most notably Petrarchan conceits, which formed clichéd comparisons between more closely related objects (such as a rose and love), metaphysical conceits go to a greater depth in comparing two completely unlike objects, although sometimes in the mode of Shakespeare's radical paradoxes and imploded contraries. One of the most famous of Donne's conceits is found in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" where he compares two lovers who are separated to the two legs of a compass.”

So I could post the example mentioned above but I'm not going to because that's not the one that hit me while I was reading tonight. Before I even knew about his whole metaphysical conceit shtick I was trying to get into the Christmas spirit by reading his poem entitled 'Nativitie' (yes, I love the spelling).

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment,
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the world to come;
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod's jealous general doom.
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith's eyes, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

This poem doesn't actually employ a metaphysical conceit...BUT what hit me about it was the first line: "Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb." The vast difference between humanity and God impacted me. So its not a metaphysical conceit proper...but the entire poem had the same effect. The very nature of the virgin birth of Christ is a metaphysical conceit. Two vastly different ideas (for lack of a better word) combined into one.

I really do not understand why my text colors are showing up like this....