The Unbelieving Zacharias
By MARK AMOROSE
(Luke 1:18)
The father of a speechless babe you’ll be.
This seems to you a dubious decree.
Therefore, a speechless father will you be.
And since you ask too anxiously a sign
To prove the promise, now you must resign
Yourself to asking with a silent sign.
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Latin original from Complete Poetry of Richard Crashaw, ed. Geo. Walton Williams (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 261:
Infantis fore te patrem, res mira videtur;
Infans interea factus es ipse pater.
Et dum promissi signum (nimis anxie) quaeris,
Jam nisi per signum quaerere nulla potes.