Jesse Sharpe PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

‘Looke Downe to Heaven’ 237
The wounds here become openings both to flood and to consume: the aim of union
with the suffering Christ through the opening of his wounds is metaphorically
achieved through encompassing tears and incorporating kisses. 54
And this Lord that is crucified is a Lord that his followers must still show deference to
through the kissing of his feet.
O thou that on this foot hast laid
Many a kisse, and many a Teare,
Now thou shal’t have all repaid,
Whatsoe’re thy charges were.
This foot hath got a Mouth and lippes,
To pay the sweet summe of thy kisses:
To pay thy Teares, an Eye that weeps
In stead of Teares such Gems as this is. (9-16)
This Lord that is dead and crucified on a cross, covered with bleeding wounds that have
transformed into eyes and mouths must be approached as a great Lord or King. Although,
as his subjects kiss his feet, his feet have a bloody mouth that can kiss back, and as they
weep over his feet, his mouth can drink the tears. Also, at the end of the two stanzas the
reader is presented with the imagery of gems again, this then is elaborated on in the final
stanza of the poem as the tears of the followers become exchanged for the tears of the
‘blood-shot eye[s]’.
54 Vera J. Camden, ‘Richard Crashaw’s Poetry’, American Imago 40.3 (1983), p. 265.