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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BEFORE DAWN, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Dim-berried is the mistletoe
Last Line: Breathes, spring is here!
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter
First Line: Dim-berried is the mistletoe
Last Line: Breathes, spring is here!
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter
Dim-berried is the mistletoe
With globes of sheenless grey,
The holly mid ten thousand thorns
Smoulders its fires away;
And in the manger Jesu sleeps
This Christmas Day.
Bull unto bull with hollow throat
Makes echo every hill,
Cold sheep in pastures thick with snow
The air with bleatings fill;
While of his mother's heart this Babe
Takes His sweet will.
All flowers and butterflies lie hid,
The blackbird and the thrush
Pipe but a little as they flit
Restless from bush to bush;
Even to the robin Gabriel hath
Cried softly, 'Hush!'
Now night's astir with burning stars
In darkness of the snow;
Burdened with frankincense and myrrh
And gold the Strangers go
Into a dusk where one dim lamp
Burns faintly, Lo!
No snowdrop yet its small head nods,
In winds of winter drear;
No lark at casement in the sky
Sings matins shrill and clear;
Yet in this frozen mirk the Dawn
Breathes, Spring is here!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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ALONE (2) by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
AN EPITAPH by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
ARABIA by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
BUNCHES OF GRAPES by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
ECHO by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
ENGLAND (2) by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
FARE WELL by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
FIVE EYES by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
JOHN MOULDY by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE
MOTLEY by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE