This is the fourth in a series of sonnets based on the Great O Antiphons. This sonnet is based on the Antiphon, “O Key of David” which reads, “O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

Is. 22:22 I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

Isiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

Is. 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

O Key of David, set my bound will free:
Unlock every barred way;
Open the prison in the heart of me;
Lead me into the light of day.
Come to me as the rising sun;
Unclasp with liberating light;
Mount your chariot your courses run
And bring me out of darkest night.
Resentment rusted, my bound heart–
Unable to release the catch.
Your love opens with a locksmith’s art
As tumbled tears let go the latch.
And bid you enter my frozen soul
Filling with freedom, making me whole.

(c) Randy Edwards
artwork: from The Queen Mary Apocalypse, England (London or East Anglia), 1st quarter of the 14th century, Royal 19 B. xv, f. 38v