Sinnes heavy loade - by Robert Southwell

O lord my sinne doth overchardge thy breste
The poyse thereof doth force thy knees to bowe
Yea flatt thou fallest with my faultes oppreste
And bloody sweate runs tricklinge from thy browe
But had they not to earth thus presséd the [5]
Much more they woulde in hell have pestred me

This globe of earth doth thy one finger propp
The worlde thow dost within thy hand embrace
Yet all this waight of sweat drew not a dropp
Ne made thee bowe much less fall on thy face [10]
But now thou hast a loade so heavy found,
That makes thee bowe yea flatt fall to the grounde

O synne how huge and heavye is thy waight
Thou wayest more then all the worlde beside
Of which when Christ had taken in his fraighte [15]
The poyse thereof his flesh coulde not abide
Alas if god himself sinke under synne
What will become of man that dies therein

First flatt thou fellst when earth did thee receive
In Closet pure of Maryes Virgin breste [20]
And now thow fallst of earth to take thy leave
Thou kissest it as cause of thy unrest
O loving lord that so dost love thy foe
As thus to kysse the ground where he doth goe.

Thow minded in thy heaven our earth to weare [25]
Dost prostrate now thy heaven our earth to blisse
As god to earth thou often wert severe
As man thou seal'st a peace with bleeding kisse.
For as of soules thow Common Father art
So is she mother of man's other parte [30]

She shortly was to drinke thy dearest bloode
And yelde thy soule a waye to Satans cave
She shortly was thy cors in tombe to shroude
And with them all thy Deitye to have
Now then in one thou joyntly yealdest all [35]
That severally to earth should shortely fall

O prostrate Christ, erect my croked mynde
Lord lett thy fall my flight from earth obtayne
Or if I still in earth must needes be shrynde
Then lord on earth come fall yet once againe [40]
And ether yelde with me in earthe to lye
Or els with thee to take me to the skye.

Notes

Christ's Agony. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

[l2][l16] poyse: Definite or specified weight; the amount that a thing weighs. Obsolete.1580 in Reg. Guild Corpus Christi York (1872) 310 'Poiz nyne unces and half an unce.'

[l5] they: my faultes (l3).  the: thee.

[l7]:word order:  thy one finger doth propp this globe of earth

[l10] ne: Following a negative clause or a word with negative force (frequently 'ne' itself as adverb). Frequently in correlative constructions, as ne..ne(..ne): neither..nor(..nor).
c1537   T. Cranmer Let. 26 May in Remains (1833) I. 186  'He cannot in that diocese be accepted ne allowed.'

[l15] fraighte: A load, burden. a1631   J. Donne Serm. (1954) VII. 440   Keep up that holy cheerefulnesse, which Christ makes the Ballast of a Christian, and his Fraight too.

[ll19-20]: This is a reference to the Incarnation when the Word was made flesh, in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

[l21] Word order: And now thou fallest, to take thy leave of earth.

[l25]: A reference to the Incarnation. God the Supreme Spirit, takes on what is material or earthly by becoming man.

[l26] blisse: To give joy or gladness to (orig. with dative); to gladden, make happy. (In 16–17th centuries blended with bless.) Obsolete.

[l30] she: There are three antecedent references in this verse to 'earth', each time contrasted with Heaven or God. Apart from the difference between the Creator and the created, another contrast is between the spiritual and the material, between the soul and the body. The pronoun 'she' seems therefore to stand for the noun 'earth' (terra, feminine in Latin). God formed man's body from the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The poet is representing God as the father of men's souls and the earth is 'personified' as the 'mother' of their bodies, 'their other parte'.

[7] Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terrae, et inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae, et factus est homo in animam viventem.
[7] And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. [Genesis 2]

[19] In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. [Genesis 3]

[l31] She: the earth will receive ('drinke') Christ's blood that is shed during His passion. There are however echoes here of:

[55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. [John 6]

Descent into Hell. Duccio. 1308. Public domain.

[l32] Satans cave: This may be a reference to the Christian belief professed in the Apostles' Creed where after His death on the cross, Christ 'descended into Hell' (descendit as inferos). Christ went to this place bordering Hell (sometimes referred to as 'limbo') to announce to the souls of the just who were waiting there the joyful news that He had reopened heaven to mankind.

[ll33-36]: A reference to the laying of Christ's body in the sepulchre.

[l33] cors: corpse, body - 1579   Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Nov. 166   Her soule unbodied of the burdenous corpse [rhymes forse, remorse].

[l34-36] them all/in one thou joyntly yealdest all: Christ's body, blood, soul and divinity (cors, bloode, soule and Deitye). In a first sense, there is a reference to what happens after Christ's death, when the earth receives 'them all'. In a second sense, there is a reference to authentic Christians (Catholic or Orthodox) belief in the Real Presence: that the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ are really present once the host has been consecrated. In a third sense, the words refer to the hope of being able to receive 'them all' in sacramental communion. In the latter two senses, the 'earth' means by extension 'humanity', since humans have received the gift of the Real Presence even after the death of Christ:

[20] ... and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. [Matthew 28]