Nativity

By John Donne

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves his welbelov'd imprisonment,
There he hath made himself to his intent
Weak enough, now into our world to come;
But Oh, for thee, for him, hath th'Inne no roome?
Yet lay him in this stall, and from the Orient,
Stars, and wisemen will travel to prevent
Th'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 goe,
With his kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

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Na*tiv"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Nativies (#). [F. nativit'e, L. nativitas. See Native, and cf. Naivete.]

1.

The coming into life or into the world; birth; also, the circumstances attending birth, as time, place, manner, etc.

Chaucer.

I have served him from the hour of my nativity. Shak.

Thou hast left ... the land of thy nativity. Ruth ii. 11.

These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame. Milton.

2. Fine Arts

A picture representing or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born.

3. Astrol.

A representation of the positions of the heavenly bodies as the moment of one's birth, supposed to indicate his future destinies; a horoscope.

The Nativity, the birth or birthday of Christ; Christmas day. -- To cast, ∨ calculate, one's nativity Astrol., to find out and represent the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth.

 

© Webster 1913.