What could be done? The inn was full of folks! His honor, Marcus Lucius, and his scribes Who made the census: honorable men From farthest Galilee, come hitherward To be enrolled; high ladies and their lords; The rich, the rabbis, such a noble throng As Bethlehem had never seen before, And may not see again. And there they were, Close herded with their servants, till the inn Was like a hive at swarming-time, and I Was fairly crazed among them. Could I know That they were so important? Just the two, No servants, just a workman sort of man, Leading a donkey, and his wife thereon, Drooping and pale, -- I saw them not myself, My servants must have driven them away; But had I seen them, how was I to know? Were inns to welcome stragglers, up and down In all our towns from Beersheba to Dan, Till He should come? And how were men to know? There was a sign, they say, a heavenly light Resplendent; but I had no time for stars. And there were songs of angels in the air Out on the hills; but how was I to hear Amid the thousand clamors of an inn? Of course, if I had known them, who they were, And who was He that should be born that night, -- For now I learn that they will make Him King, A second David, who will ransom us From these Philistine Romans, -- who but He That feeds an army with a loaf of bread, And if a soldier falls, He touches him And up he leaps, uninjured? Had I known, I would have turned the whole inn upside down, His honor, Marcus Lucius, and the rest, And sent them all to stables, had I known. So you have seen Him, stranger, and perhaps Again will see Him. Prithee say for me, I did not know; and if He comes again As He will surely come, with retinue, And banners, and an army, tell my Lord That all my inn is His, to make amends. Alas! Alas! To miss a chance like that! This inn that might be chief among them all, The birthplace of Messiah, -- had I known! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOKEN AT A CASTLE GATE by DONALD (GRADY) DAVIDSON A WOMAN'S SHORTCOMINGS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING CHRISMUS IS A-COMIN' by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE SENSITIVE PLANT by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY A POEM OF SPRING by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS LUCERNE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES THE LITTLE MOTHERS by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |