POETS ON Christmas

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20995, 23 December 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

POETS ON Christmas

J stand above the earth tonight To hear its music swelling, And watch the play of life and iight In many a scattered dwelling; In hamlets near and homes afar, O’er earth’s wide-reaching spaces, The blessed ray from Bethlehem’s star l Lights up all human faces The air is full of happy songs !> From choirs of children singing, And on the ear of listening throngs The Christmas bells are ringing; And all because the Lord of light, As ancient bards had sung us, Came down to earth on Christmas night, To live and dwell among us. Earth had not seen so great a sight Through all its bygone stages, Or darkness rested like a blight O’er those long gloomy ages; But now the morning star arose, The brighter day was breaking, l The long dark night drew near its close, The world to joy was waking; j This joy should spread from land to land, To islands of the ocean, J And countless human hearts expand With new and strange emotion. •) l And evermore the gloomy place Beneath His touch shall brighten; And evermore the burdened race 9 His gentle care shall lighten j) And man shall love his brother man | And dwell with him as neighbour, And warlike clan shall join with clan ») In quiet peaceful labour; j) The tribes of earth shall know the Lord, And bow in awe before Him; Nations shall join, with glad accord, To worship and adore Him. \ A LL after pleasures as I rid one day, My horse and I, both tir’d, bodie and minde, jj With full crie of affections, quite astray, I took up in the next inne I could finde. p ,) There, when I came, whom found I but my deare, My dearest Lord, expecting till the grief Of pleasures brought me to Him, readie there To be all passengers’ most sweet relief. U O Thou, whose glorious yet contracted light, Wrap in night’s maqtle, stole into a manger, >) Since my dark soul and brutish, is Thy right, h To man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger, Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou may’st have l A better lodging thpyi a rack or grave. —George Herbert. COME say that ever ’gainst that season comes j) Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, | The bird of dawning singeth all night long; 0 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no plants strike, !) No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time. -—Shakespeare.

whose birth on earth Angels sang to men, While Thy stars made mirth, Saviour, at Thy birth, This day bom again; As this night was bright With Thy cradle-ray, Very Light of light, Turn the wild world’s night To Thy perfect day. —Swinburne

war, or battle’s sound, Was heard the world around; The idle spear and shield were high uphung; The hooked chariot stood, Unstained with hostile blood, The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; And kings sat still with awful eye, As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began; The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kissed, Whispering new joys to the mild ocean, Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. —Milton

r VHE smiling baby came to give us glee; But for the mourners was the Saviour born. * —H. Coleridge