For Jacobus Revius the Word of God was the chief source of poetic inspiration. In that revealed Word it was especially the Word made flesh—Christ Jesus himself who inspired the poet’s finest lyrics. The supreme significance of Christ in the Scriptures so informs Revius’ poetic sensibility that the Savior becomes the key image to which all […]

The poem “Bloedige Sweet” was written by the Dutch Calvinist poet, Jacobus Revius. It appeared in 1630 in the first volume of Over-Ysselsche Sangen en Dichten—a collection of Revius’ religious poems arranged in Scriptural order. “Bloedige Sweet” is one of those poems in which Revius contemplates the suffering Savior. The poet exhorts his “lazy soul” to do what all Christians […]