Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A COUNTRY CAROL, by MARGARET WIDDEMER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A COUNTRY CAROL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There the patient oxen were, by the ass's stall
Last Line: In the open country-land of my good lord!
Alternate Author Name(s): Schauffler, Mrs. Robert H.
Subject(s): Christmas; Country Life; Easter; Holidays; Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ = Suffering & Sacrifice; Nativity, The; The Resurrection


THERE the patient oxen were, by the ass's stall,
Watching my Lord's manger knelt the waking cattle all;
'Twas a little country maid vigil by him kept—
All among the country things my good Lord slept.
Fair was Rome the city on that early Christmas morn,
Yet among the country-folk was my Lord born!

Country-lads that followed Him, blithe they were and kind,
It was only city-folk were hard to Him and blind:
Ay, He told of lilies, and of grain and grass that grew,
Fair things of the summer fields my good Lord knew,
By the hedgerows' flowering there He laid His head—
It was in the country that my Lord was bred.

When the cross weighed down on him, on the grievous road,
'Twas a kindly countryman raised my good Lord's load;
Peasant-girls of Galilee, folk of Nazareth,
These were fain to follow Him down the ways of death—
Yea, beyond a city wall, underneath the sky,
Out in open country did my good Lord die.

When he rose to Heaven on that white Ascension day
Last from open country did my good Lord pass away;
Rows of golden seraphim watched where He should dwell,
Yet it was the country-folk had my Lord's farewell:
Out above the flowered hill, from the mossy grass,
Up from open country did my good Lord pass.

Where the jeweled minsters are, where the censers sway,
There they kneel to Christ the Lord on this His bearing-day:
But I shall stay to greet Him where the bonny fields begin,
Like the fields that once my good Lord wandered in,
Where His thorn-tree flowered once, where His sparrows soared,
In the open country-land of my good Lord!





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