Annunciation

When I was fourteen years old and in the ninth grade, my English teacher handed me a copy of Death Be Not Proud one day and asked me to read it for the class. It was my first encounter with John Donne and I was hooked. Here's another of his Holy Sonnets that is focused on the Advent mystery:

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.

Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
Thou hast light in dark, and shutst in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.

-- John Donne