17 pages • 34 minutes read
The Burning Babe
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“New Heaven, New War" by Robert Southwell (1602)
Also written by Southwell, “New Heaven, New War” is similar in theme and imagery to “The Burning Babe.” The opening of the poem contrasts cold and darkness with brightness and heat. Just as “The Burning Babe” takes place on Christmas Day, “New Heaven, New War” also describes the manger scene where Jesus Christ was born, repeating the symbol of the infant/babe and the forgiveness and eternal life the infant offers to humanity.
“New Prince, New Pomp“ by Robert Southwell (1595)
“New Prince, New Pomp,” read in combination with “New Heaven, New War” and “The Burning Babe,” confirms the common themes and symbols Southwell tends to implement in his poetry. Like the other two poems, “New Prince, New Pomp” describes the infant Christ child lying in a stable in the cold of winter surrounded by lowing beasts (making the manger part of an English climate rather than a Middle Eastern one, the better to connect to his readers). “New Prince, New Pomp,” however, is much gentler. It focuses on the vulnerability of the baby Jesus, as opposed to the salvation and mercy he energetically, sometimes militantly, inspires in Southwell’s other poems.
“To Heaven“ by Ben Jonson (1616)
A contemporary of Southwell, Jonson was also a fellow Catholic. Jonson’s poem gives readers another example of religious poetry from the Renaissance period, describing a speaker approaching God in supplication. The poem has a much more melancholy tone as opposed to the hopeful air of Southwell’s work, as Jonson’s speaker seems removed from God’s grace and forgiveness.
Further Literary Resources
The Christ Child on Fire: Southwell’s Mighty Babe by Theresa M. Kenney (2013)
Kenney looks at Southwell’s “The Burning Babe” and “New Heaven, New War,” closely reading how the merging of Christ’s birth and death affects the “temporal rhetoric” of the work. The conflation of Jesus as an infant with signs of his impending crucifixion allows Southwell “to portray the Christ Child as both suffering redeemer and powerful judge at the end of time.”
"‘Such Fire Is Love’: The Bernardine Poetry of St. Robert Southwell, SJ” by Diana Marie Shaw (2013)
Shaw places the poetry of Southwell alongside the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, an 11th century Benedictine monk. Southwell was a devoted reader of Clairvaux, and read his work while imprisoned in the Tower of London. Shaw’s essay “explores Southwell’s and Bernard’s similar relations to their respective literary cultures, particularly in their religious conversion of the language of secular love.”
“Robert Southwell: Sacrament and Self“ by Shaun Ross (2017)
Ross reads Southwell’s poetry as a metaphor for the Eucharist—a rite in which Catholics consume wafers that are supposed to be the transubstantiated body of Christ. Ross argues that Southwell writes his poems as Eucharist replacements for Catholics unable to receive this sacrament because of Elizabethan anti-Catholicism policies. Ross notes that Southwell “intends his work to have a pastoral function for his Recusant readership.”
Listen to Poem
Musical icon Sting sings a musical rendition of “The Burning Babe” with instrumental accompaniment.
Unlock all 17 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: