Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CHRISTMAS CAROL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Another christmas-tide
Last Line: Make glad the waiting earth.
Subject(s): Christmas Carols


ANOTHER Christmas-tide,
Another solemn mirth,
White robed again and purified,
Once more the wondering Earth
Listens, while on the frosty, star-lit air,
As of old time the glad Angelic throng,
The midnight chimes peal out in bursts of joyous song.
This is the Day which saw His Birth!
Rejoice, be glad, oh Earth!

In old fanes over seas,
In humble homes of prayer,
His people, bending faithful knees,
Welcome Him everywhere;
O'er earth's unbounded plains, from pole to pole,
Swift speeds the blessed day when first He came
To raise a fallen world from lowest depths of shame.
This is the Day which saw His Birth!
Rejoice, be glad, oh Earth!

Therefore men's souls rejoice,
Though sullen winter's spite
May send to drown their jubilant voice
Wild storms and furious night.
To-day we keep our solemn festival;
No presage warns of coming tragedy,
Only our newer hope immense begins to be.
This is the Day which saw His Birth!
Rejoice, be glad, oh Earth!

Our hope! But when, indeed,
Shall Peace on earth prevail?
When shall the innocent cease to bleed,
The sorrowful to wail?
Murder and war and rapine still
Christian and Heathen vex alike today,
Though since on earth He came ages have rolled away.
Yet on this Day which saw His Birth!
Rejoice, be glad, oh Earth!

Despair not, waiting Earth;
Have faith, and thou shalt see
How from that far-off mystic birth
At last comes Victory.
Meet, brethren, round the sacred hearth of home,
With souls and minds by ancient faith inspired,
With glowing hearts by love and pity pierced and fired.
This is the Day which saw His Birth!
Rejoice, be glad, oh Earth!

Peace and good-will to all,
Be this our Christmas song;
Raise up the erring feet which fall,
The feeble hands make strong.
Though the slow ages leave His work undone,
Let us, who feel and mourn our brothers' need,
Find in his tender words an all-sufficing creed.
So shall this Day which saw His Birth
Make glad the waiting Earth.





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