The Burning Babe

“The Burning Babe” is a 16-line lyric poem written in 1595 by Robert Southwell, an English Jesuit priest, and martyr who would later be ordained a saint. “The Burning Babe” is about a religious vision: An infant surrounded by flames—an avatar of Jesus Christ—tells the speaker about the torment of saving men’s souls. Though the imagery in the poem conveys the suffering of Christ for mankind, the conclusion of the poem leaves readers with a sense of hope and forgiveness. Southwell himself also suffered for his faith. Imprisoned for celebrating the Catholic Mass in Elizabethan England where this sect of Christianity was outlawed, Southwell was tortured and killed for his faith. “The Burning Babe” appeared in Southwell’s posthumous collection of poetry, St. Peter’s Complaint, which contained poems Southwell composed while imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Poet Biography

Robert Southwell was born in the county of Norfolk in England in approximately 1561. Southwell’s family was wealthy and well-established, having connections with other noble households such as the Cecil, Howard, Bacon, and Copley families. In May of 1576, Southwell went to Douai in Flanders to study at the English College, a Catholic school. While at school, Southwell decided that he wanted to pursue a religious vocation. It is said that he walked to Rome, where he was admitted in 1578 as a novice to the Jesuits, a then recently founded order of the Catholic Church that specialized in evangelization. After studying at the Roman College, Southwell became an ordained Jesuit priest in 1584.

In 1586, Southwell left for England. Southwell’s directive was to preach in the city and vicinity of London despite the fact that Queen Elizabeth had continued her father Henry VIII’s decision to break from the Catholic Church, establishing the Protestant Church of England as the national faith and outlawing public Catholic worship. Southwell moved secretly between households using disguises. During this time, he wrote letters to Sir Philip Howard, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his Catholic faith. These letters would eventually be collected and printed as An Epistle of Comfort (1587).

While celebrating Mass in 1592, Southwell was arrested by Robert Topcliffe, Queen Elizabeth I’s “notorious priest hunter” ("Robert Southwell SJ." Poetry Foundation, 2022) and transported to Topcliffe’s residence where he was tortured for information on other priests for a month. After being tortured and interrogated, Southwell was transferred to the Tower of London and then Newgate, another prison. While imprisoned, Southwell wrote poems which would be collected and printed under the title St. Peter’s Complaint. In February 1595, Southwell was tried for treason, found guilty, and was sentenced to death. The day after his sentencing, Southwell was dragged to the notorious gallows at Tyburn where he was hanged, quartered, and beheaded.

On October 25, 1970, Pope Paul VI canonized Southwell as a saint and recognized him as “one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales” ("Robert Southwell SJ." Poetry Foundation, 2022).

Poem Text

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed

As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.

“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,

Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;

The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,

The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,

For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,

     So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”

     With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,

     And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

Southwell, Robert. “The Burning Babe.” 2022. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“The Burning Babe” opens on a snowy winter evening. The speaker stands outside in the snow, shivering, when a sudden warmth and light draws his attention: a religious vision of an infant surrounded by fire. The tears that fall from the baby’s eyes feed the flames, thereby making the fire continuously flare. The infant laments that no one comes to him to “warm their hearts or feel my fire” (Line 8). He compares his heart to a furnace and his love to fire. Justice and mercy accompany his love as well. Using the fire of his love, the infant intends to rework the metal of men’s souls into something good and pure. The holy babe desires to give himself up entirely for the good of mankind. As the vision disappears, the speaker recalls the fact that it is Christmas Day—the day on which according to Christian myth Jesus Christ was born.