"Green were her eyes, -- yellow were her eyes -- Her eyes were like withered sedge!" -- "This is holy Mass and the hour flies And there is red in the church-yard hedge. "Raise me aloft my taper's flame, Light me my candles three, For I must call on the Baby's name Who is born to young Mary!" -- "O father, I see a blood-red streak In the reeds where first I caught her -- And I hear a cry makes my heart weak -- And turns my bones to water. "The marsh-bittern and lone curlew That cry comes not from them --" -- "Bring me bread and wine my Lubberlu, And hold my vestments' hem! "The candles burn -- The oxen kneel. Boy, bring me my holy book -- Born is the King of Israel!" -- "Oh father, my father, look! "She is pressing her face 'gainst the window-pane, Where the saints stare in a row And her lips are red with the morning's stain And her cheeks are white like snow!" -- -- "'Tis Christmas morn and the mass unsung For the Baby of young Mary!" -- But the idiot-boy from his side had sprung. At the window prone was he. And the oxen knelt in their frozen shed And the sheep in their hurdled pen; But Lubberlu lay stark and dead, He never will come again. They sign his breast and they sign his brow With the cross to which they pray -- But two lost souls are flying now Over the reeds and over the snow, Over the hills and away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 1. AIR by JOHN ARMSTRONG THE BLACK MOUSQUETAIRE; A LEGEND OF FRANCE by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM ASPIRATIONS: 4 by MATHILDE BLIND SUFFRAGE MARCHING-SONG by LOUIS JAMES BLOCK THE JUNGLE WALLAH by BERTON BRALEY SALUTE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE CONQUEST by GEORGE GORDON BYRON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. GRACIOUS MOTHER by EDWARD CARPENTER |