BENEATH yon fir trees in the west, The sunset round it glowing, A cottage lies like bird on nest, With thatch roof hardly showing. And there across the window-sill Leans out a white-starred heifer; She snorts and stamps, then breathes her fill Of evening's balmy zephyr. Near-by reposes, hedged with thorn, A garden neatly tended; The sunflower looks about with scorn; The bell-flower's head is bended. And in the garden kneels a child, She weeds or merely dallies, A lily plucks with gesture mild And wanders down the alleys. A shepherd group in distance dim Lie stretched upon the heather, And with a simple evening hymn Wake the still breeze together. And from the roomy threshing hall The hammer strokes ring cheery, The plane gives forth a crunching drawl, The rasping saw sounds weary. The evening star now greets the scene And smoothly soars above it, And o'er the cottage stands serene; He seems in truth to love it. A vision with such beauty crowned, Had pious monks observed it, They straight upon a golden ground Had painted and preserved it. The carpenter, the herdsmen there A pious choral sounding; The maiden with the lily fair, And peace the whole surrounding; The wondrous star that beams on all From out the fields of heaven— May it not be that in the stall The Christ is born this even? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DAY AND THE WORK by EDWIN MARKHAM SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IPPOLIT KONOVALOFF by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A WAR SONG TO ENGLISHMEN by WILLIAM BLAKE A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 2 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN ONLY A YEAR' by HARRIET BEECHER STOWE THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE MORAL FABLES: THE TALE OF THE COCK, AND THE JEWEL by AESOP A NYMPH TO A YOUNG SHEPHERD, INSENSIBLE OF LOVE by PHILIP AYRES |