Oh, Love is the soul of Christmas, And Hope is its message sweet, There is joy in the heart at Christmas, God speaks in a life complete. The children of men are singing, Oh, never such cause for song, And the light of the Babe is shining Through eyes of the happy throng. The log on the hearth is kindled, And a welcome is writ in fire For those who were gone a season And returned to their hearts' desire. The gleam of symbolic candles, The weavings of holly leaves, Are the voicings of the spirit That ever to Christmas cleaves. Oh, there's joy, yes joy, in Christmas, But even the holly pricks, And the melted wax on candles Like tears falls from burning wicks. There are hearths where the log is dampened, There are homes where each pulsing breath Reminds of the soul whose Christmas Is spent in the arms of Death. There are voiceless prayers for courage To bear coming Yuletide through, There are yearning hopes for something To prove of the new life true. There are fathers and mothers and children That ask, and the echoes are still Save for ringing of bells and music That make for another's good will. There's a void in the heart of the poet, There's a break in the perfect ring, There's a minor note in his music, His fires are smouldering. There are tears when there would be laughter, There are poems of joy unsaid, For the song that was his last Christmas Is now but a dirge for the dead. Yes, Love is the soul of Christmas, And Hope is its message sweet, There is joy and there's pain at Christmas And ever the two shall meet. Though Love is o'er shadowed by sorrow, Yet Hope is still seen through fears, In the homes of the broken-hearted Where Christmas is one of tears. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OUR LORD AND OUR LADY by HILAIRE BELLOC THE SEVEN ARTS by ROBERT FROST I'VE NOTHING TO OFFER by DAVID IGNATOW SHALL I SAY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE CRANES OF IBYCUS by EMMA LAZARUS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IPPOLIT KONOVALOFF by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |