I ask no merrier Christmas Than the hungry bereft and cold shall know That night. This is all I can give so that none shall want -- My heart and soul to share their depth of woe. I will not bribe their misery not to haunt My merrymaking by proffer of boon That should only mock the grief that is rightly theirs. Here I shall sit, the fire out, and croon All the dismal and joy-forsaken airs, Sole alone, and thirsty with them that thirst, Hungry with them that hunger and are accurst. No storm that night can be too untamed for me; If it is woe on earth, woe let it be! Am I a child that I should refuse to see? What could I plead asking them to be glad That night? My right? Nay it is theirs that I with them should be sad That night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE JOBHOLDER by DAVID IGNATOW FABLE: THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON A SONG TO CELIA by CHARLES SEDLEY FRIEND by MARJORIE DUGDALE ASHE THE PASSION FLOWER by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN |