Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


YULETIDE YARNS by ALAN PATRICK HERBERT

First Line: FATHER CHRISTMAS, FAT WITH GIFTS
Last Line: "SHOULD NOT SHINE UPON A SKI."
Subject(s): CHRISTMAS; OXFORD UNIVERSITY; NATIVITY, THE;

FATHER CHRISTMAS

@3The False.@1

FATHER Christmas, fat with gifts,
Scorns the ordinary lifts,
Comes, unnoticed, by the grate
On the customary date.

@3The True.@1

Armed with over-crowded hose
Father to the nursery goes;
Tommy with but little tact,
Catches father in the act.

THE YULE LOG

@3The False.@1

Tripping o'er the crisp, white snow,
See the children come (or go),
Bringing in the Christmas fuel,
Though the frost is keen and cruel.

@3The True.@1

Yule is signalled by the flight
Of the staid electric light,
Amputated from the main
(The dynamo is crocked again).

CHRISTMAS NUMBERS

@3The False.@1

These appear at Christmas time
Full of seasonable rhyme.

@3The True.@1

These are published during June;
We shall have the next ones soon.

THE WAITS

@3The False.@1

How we love the sweet refrain
Floating down the moonlit lane --
Wench and stripling, lad and lass,
Chanting @3Good King Wenceslas@1.

@3The True.@1

Every evening at the gate
Figures the accursed Wait:
All of them, I say, are curs'd;
But the basses are the worst.

@3The False.@1

"This has been a heavy year;
Give him half-a-sovereign, dear."

@3The True.@1

"Nothing but rejected verse
Tell the man I've lost my purse."

SNOWBALLING

@3The False.@1

Everyone whose heart is right
Loves to have a snowball fight.

@3The True.@1

I have never loved it yet;
English snow is very wet.

SLIDING

@3The False.@1

When it freezes, we shall make
Splendid slides upon the lake.

@3The True.@1

If I want to have a fall,
I can get it in the hall.

SKI-ING

@3The False.@1

"Let us @3ski@1 across the downs:
We can call upon the Browns."

@3The True.@1

"On the whole, I feel that we
Should not shine upon a @3ski@1."



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