Christmas, 1889.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 574, 28 December 1889, Page 3

Christmas, 1889.

(By A. W. Hubby.)

All that the Spring, that delightful new-comer, First gave in her promise so tender and sweet, Now is confirmed by this glorious Summer Crowned with fruition and beauty couplete. Fair are the skies in their golden resplendence : And blue as the azure of girlish bright eyes ; * Kissed by the cloudlets in fairy attendance Beheld oft at eve with the loveliest dyes 1 Soft are the gales so deliciously straying, Lake, ocean and stream in their splendour are seen, Beauteous each landscape we may be surveying — Hill, valley, and meadow, and forest of green ; Skylarks and song-birds are joyously singing, Those minstrels of Nature so artless and true ; Oh ! listen ; God speaks in ther melodies ringing A message of gladness to me and to you. 'Tis Christmas ! To me most sacred of mornings That tells of the birth of our Saviour divine ;; And here amid Nature's elysian adornings It comes with a purport and beauty benign. Then let us hie to the woodland and forest ; Or linger awhile on the bonny blue sea ; For Nature's charms are the sweetest and purest At this festive season where'er we may be. Now we are wooed to each pleasant excursion, For see the gay throng in its summer attire . Awaiting the picnic and rural diversion, And all that the eye and the heart can desire ; From steamers afloat on the tranquil waters The 8 trains of glad music deliciously sound ; But ah! 'tis the presence of Auckland's fair daughters Enhances the splendour that triumphs around* Pure and sincere is the time-honoured greeting ; Welcome the missives that greet ns to-day From long absent friends— but dearer the meeting With those we may love and who love us aiway. May she whose approval I jealously troasnre More sweet than the fame of the poet can be ; f£' And all who are dear to our moments of leisure Rejoice with a gladness unsullied and free.