SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY A SPANIARD. No trumpet-blast profaned The hour in which the Prince of Peace was born; No bloody streamlet stained Earth's silver rivers on that sacred morn; But, o'er the peaceful plain, The war-horse drew the peasant's loaded wain. The soldier had laid by The sword and stripped the corselet from his breast, And hung his helm on high-- The sparrow's winter home and summer nest; And, with the same strong hand That flung the barbed spear, he tilled the land. Oh, time for which we yearn; Oh, sabbath of the nations long foretold! Season of peace, return, Like a late summer when the year grows old, When the sweet sunny days Steeped mead and mountain-side in golden haze. For now two rival kings Flaunt, o'er our bleeding land, their hostile flags, And every sunrise brings The hovering vulture from his mountain-crags To where the battle-plain Is strewn with dead, the youth and flower of Spain. Christ is not come, while yet O'er half the earth the threat of battle lowers, And our own fields are wet, Beneath the battle-cloud, with crimson showers-- The life-blood of the slain, Poured out where thousands die that one may reign. Soon, over half the earth, In every temple crowds shall kneel again To celebrate His birth Who brought the message of good-will to men, And bursts of joyous song Shall shake the roof above the prostrate throng. Christ is not come, while there The men of blood whose crimes affront the skies Kneel down in act of prayer, Amid the joyous strains, and when they rise Go forth, with sword and flame, To waste the land in His most holy name. Oh, when the day shall break O'er realms unlearned in warfare's cruel arts, And all their millions wake To peaceful tasks performed with loving hearts. On such a blessed morn, Well may the nations say that Christ is born. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN WILL LOVE COME? by PAKENHAM THOMAS BEATTY ON MY THIRTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON SONG by ARTHUR WILLIAM EDGAR O'SHAUGHNESSY HYMN OF THE WEST by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN THAT GENERAL UTILITY RAG, BY OUR OWN IRVING BERLIN by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 10. TO THE MUSE by MARK AKENSIDE WOODEN WHEELS by LOWELL C. BALLARD |