Christmas in Poetry

CHRISTMAS

While shepherds watch’d their flocks by night,

All seated on the ground,

The angel of the Lord came down,

And glory shone around.

“Fear not,” said he (for mighty dread

Had seized their troubled mind);

“Glad tidings of great joy I bring

To you and all mankind.

“To you, in David’s town, this day

Is born of David’s line

The Saviour who is Christ the Lord;

And this shall be the sign:

“The heavenly Babe you there shall find

To human view display’d,

All meanly wrapt in swathing bands,

And in a manger laid.”

Thus spake the Seraph; and forthwith

Appear’d a shining throng

Of angels, praising God, and thus

Address’d their joyful song:

“All glory be to God on high,

And to the earth be peace;

Good-will henceforth from heaven to men

Begin, and never cease!”

Nahum Tate

THE STORY OF THE SHEPHERD

It was the very noon of night: the stars above the fold,

More sure than clock or chiming bell, the hour of midnight told:

When from the heav’ns there came a voice, and forms were seen to shine

Still bright’ning as the music rose with light and love divine.

With love divine, the song began; there shone a light serene:

O, who hath heard what I have heard, or seen what I have seen?

O ne’er could nightingale at dawn salute the rising day

With sweetness like that bird of song in his immortal lay:

O ne’er were woodnotes heard at eve by banks with poplar shade

So thrilling as the concert sweet by heav’nly harpings made;

For love divine was in each chord, and filled each pause between:

O, who hath heard what I have heard, or seen what I have seen?

I roused me at the piercing strain, but shrunk as from the ray

Of summer lightning: all around so bright the splendour lay.

For oh, it mastered sight and sense, to see that glory shine,

To hear that minstrel in the clouds, who sang of Love Divine,

To see that form with bird-like wings, of more than mortal mien:

O, who hath heard what I have heard, or seen what I have seen?

When once the rapturous trance was past, that so my sense could bind,

I left my sheep to Him whose care breathed in the western wind:

I left them, for instead of snow, I trod on blade and flower,

And ice dissolved in starry rays at morning’s gracious hour,

Revealing where on earth the steps of Love Divine had been:

O, who hath heard what I have heard, or seen what I have seen?

I hasted to a low-roofed shed, for so the Angel bade;

And bowed before the lowly rack where Love Divine was laid:

A new-born Babe, like tender Lamb, with Lion’s strength there smiled;

For Lion’s strength immortal might, was in that new-born Child;

That Love Divine in child-like form had God for ever been:

O, who hath heard what I have heard, or seen what I have seen?

Translated from the Spanish

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

When Christ was born in Bethlehem,

’Twas night but seemed the noon of day:

The star whose light

Was pure and bright,

Shone with u