IT was the death-time of the year— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 How chill, how keen the stars appear! The frost is on each gray grass-spear, And frozen white are river and mere. All human folk are houséd warm— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 With light and fire 'gainst night and storm. And little children, safe from harm, Each in its tender mother's arm. Like the swan's plume the snows are spread— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 With Christ's dear mother lacking bed. All doors are shut against her need, Except the humble cattle-shed. Shake down the grass for her to lie— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 And bid the quiet beasts draw nigh. All Heaven shall now abase its eye, Nor view the Birth so Heavenly. Alone upon that holy ground— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 The ass and oxen knelt in swound. While Bedlam lay in slumber bound, The ass, the ox, were worthy found. Before the Kings and Shepherds these— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 And Powers and Principalities. With ass and oxen on their knees, He doth exalt all lowliness. Oh, dull and sin-clogged hearts of men— Sing, @3Gloria in Excelsis Deo!@1 With frost upon the window pane. God save ye, merry gentlemen: For Christ, Our Lord, is born again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ESTONIAN BRIDAL SONG by JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER A PRELUDE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH VAIN EXCUSE by WALTER CONRAD ARENSBERG THE KNIGHTS: THE POET AND HIS RIVALS by ARISTOPHANES |