Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHRISTMAS COMMUNION, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHRISTMAS COMMUNION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come in, dear babe, and rest!
Last Line: For thee, for thee, the stable waits once more.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Christmas; Eucharist; Nativity, The; Communion


COME in, dear Babe, and rest!
Cold is the night and keen;
Here is no Mother with her milky breast,
Her long hair's silken screen,
To hide from Thee the stable, poor and mean.

There are no angel-folk
Hung between Heaven and earth,
Making the night a glory, and no flock
Of stars that sing for mirth
Because of the wonderful, long-looked for Birth.

It is so dark and cold,
Colder than Bethlehem was;
Here are no sheets with lavender in fold,
Nor even the pleachéd grass.
Cold as a stone, cold is my heart, alas!

But two gaunt beasts are here,
Not meet for Thy delight;
Ox of my appetites, misspent and drear,
Ass of my folly light,
Hanging their heads, Thy courtiers are to-night.

Not like those innocent things
That shook the bed for Thee;
Here are no shepherd men, here are no kings
With gifts in their degree;
Cold, bare, and empty, yet wilt come to me?

Cold as the clay, and hard,
Yet wilt Thou come as of yore?
I who have neither gold nor spikenard,
Thou Hope as long before!
For Thee, for Thee, the stable waits once more.





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