Richard Crashaw (c.1613-August 25, 1649) was an English Metaphysical poet, known for using striking figures of speech. He associated with John Donne, and was a contemporary of both John Bunyan and John Milton. At first an Anglican in the High Church, he converted to Catholicism and died as canon of the Santa Casa Cathedral at Loreto. Many of his great poems are contained in Carmen Deo Nostra, 1652.
In his Hymn of the Nativity, 1652, Richard Crashaw wrote:
<Poor world (said I) what wilt thou do To entertain this starry stranger?
Is this the best thou canst bestow?
A cold, and not too cleanly, manger? Contend, ye powers of heav’n and earth,
To fit a bed for this huge birth.> 1613RC001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1613RC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Richard Crashaw, 1652, in the Hymn of the Nativity, st. 6. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 292.
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