Jesus! Thy Crucifix

Jesus! Thy Crucifix - meaning Summary

Divine View of Smallness

This short lyric addresses Jesus directly, puzzling at how his crucifixion and his transformed presence in Paradise relate to human smallness. The speaker asks that the image of the crucifix teach him the scale of human experience, while Jesus’s "second face" in Paradise prompts remembrance of our own condition. The poem compresses humility and intimacy with the divine into a brief, contemplative petition about perception and sympathy.