These poems range from serious seasonal reflections by Martin Luther ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") and John Milton ("On the Morning of Christ's Nativity") to flights of fancy such as Lewis Carroll's "Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child" and Kenneth Grahame's "Carol of the Field Mice" from The Wind in the Willows. Other contributors include Christina Rossetti, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Walter Scott. Twenty-five timeless black-and-white etchings, engravings, and drawings enhance this treasury of verse.
These poems range from serious seasonal reflections by Martin Luther ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") and John Milton ("On the Morning of Christ's Nativity") to flights of fancy such as Lewis Carroll's "Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child" and Kenneth Grahame's "Carol of the Field Mice" from The Wind in the Willows. Other contributors include Christina Rossetti, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Walter Scott. Twenty-five timeless black-and-white etchings, engravings, and drawings enhance this treasury of verse.
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These poems range from serious seasonal reflections by Martin Luther ("From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") and John Milton ("On the Morning of Christ's Nativity") to flights of fancy such as Lewis Carroll's "Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child" and Kenneth Grahame's "Carol of the Field Mice" from The Wind in the Willows. Other contributors include Christina Rossetti, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Walter Scott. Twenty-five timeless black-and-white etchings, engravings, and drawings enhance this treasury of verse.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780486112480 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Dover Publications |
Publication date: | 02/03/2012 |
Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 112 |
File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Favorite Christmas Poems
By James Daley
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2006 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-11248-0
CHAPTER 1
Gabriel's Message
SABINE BARING-GOULD (1834–1924)
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;
"All hail," said he, "thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favoured lady,
Gloria!
"For know a blessèd mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honour thee,
Thy son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold.
Most highly favoured lady,
Gloria!"
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head,
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name."
Most highly favoured lady,
Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn,
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say,
"Most highly favoured lady,
Gloria!"
Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913
Pax hominibus benae voluntatis
ROBERT BRIDGES (1844–1930)
A frosty Christmas Eve
when the stars were shining
Fared I forth alone
where westward falls the hill,
And from many a village
in the water'd valley
Distant music reach'd me
peals of bells aringing:
The constellated sounds
ran sprinkling on earth's floor
As the dark vault above
with stars was spangled o'er.
Then sped my thought to keep
that first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching
by their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields
and marveling could not tell
Whether it were angels
or the bright stars singing.
Now blessed be the tow'rs
that crown England so fair
That stand up strong in prayer
unto God for our souls:
Blessed be their founders
(said I) an' our country folk
Who are ringing for Christ
in the belfries to-night
With arms lifted to clutch
the rattling ropes that race
Into the dark above
and the mad romping din.
But to me heard afar
it was starry music
Angels' song, comforting
as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly
to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me
by the riches of time
Mellow'd and transfigured
as I stood on the hill
Heark'ning in the aspect
of th' eternal silence.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
BISHOP PHILLIPS BROOKS (1835–1893)
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth;
For Christ is born of Mary;
And, gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.
Where children pure and happy
Pray to the blessèd Child,
Where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
And Christmas comes once more.
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas Angels
The great glad tidings tell:
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.
Christmas Song
BLISS CARMAN (1861–1929)
Above the weary waiting world,
Asleep in chill despair,
There breaks a sound of joyous bells
Upon the frosted air.
And o'er the humblest rooftree, lo,
A star is dancing on the snow.
What makes the yellow star to dance
Upon the brink of night?
What makes the breaking dawn to glow
So magically bright,—
And all the earth to be renewed
With infinite beatitude?
The singing bells, the throbbing star,
The sunbeams on the snow,
And the awakening heart that leaps
New ecstasy to know,—
They all are dancing in the morn
Because a little child is born.
Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child
LEWIS CARROLL (1832–1898)
Lady, dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.
We have heard the children say—
Gentle children, whom we love—
Long ago on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above.
Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again—
Echo still the joyful sound
"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide;
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide!
Thus, forgetting tricks and play
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, glad New Year!
A Christmas Carol
G. K. CHESTERTON (1874–1936)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)
The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)
The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at him,
And all the stars looked down.
The House of Christmas
G. K. CHESTERTON (1874–1936)
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.
This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
December
JOHN CLARE (1793–1864)
Glad Christmas comes, and every hearth
Makes room to give him welcome now,
E'en want will dry its tears in mirth,
And crown him with a holly bough;
Though tramping 'neath a winter sky,
O'er snowy paths and rimy stiles,
The housewife sets her spinning by
To bid him welcome with her smiles.
Each house is swept the day before,
And windows stuck with ever-greens,
The snow is besom'd from the door,
And comfort crowns the cottage scenes.
Gilt holly, with its thorny pricks,
And yew and box, with berries small,
These deck the unused candlesticks,
And pictures hanging by the wall.
Neighbours resume their annual cheer,
Wishing, with smiles and spirits high,
Glad Christmas and a happy year,
To every morning passer-by;
Milkmaids their Christmas journeys go,
Accompanied with favour'd swain;
And children pace the crumping snow,
To taste their granny's cake again.
The shepherd, now no more afraid,
Since custom doth the chance bestow,
Starts up to kiss the giggling maid
Beneath the branch of mistletoe
That 'neath each cottage beam is seen,
With pearl-like berries shining gay;
The shadow still of what hath been,
Which fashion yearly fades away.
The singing wates, a merry throng,
At early morn, with simple skill,
Yet imitate the angels song,
And chant their Christmas ditty still;
And, 'mid the storm that dies and swells
By fits—in hummings softly steals
The music of the village bells,
Ringing round their merry peals.
When this is past, a merry crew,
Bedeck'd in masks and ribbons gay,
The "Morris-dance," their sports renew,
And act their winter evening play.
The clown turn'd king, for penny-praise,
Storms with the actor's strut and swell;
And Harlequin, a laugh to raise,
Wears his hunch-back and tinkling bell.
And oft for pence and spicy ale,
With winter nosegays pinn'd before,
The wassail-singer tells her tale,
And drawls her Christmas carols o'er.
While 'prentice boy, with ruddy face,
And rime-bepowder'd, dancing locks,
From door to door with happy pace,
Runs round to claim his "Christmas box."
The block upon the fire is put,
To sanction custom's old desires;
And many a fagot's bands are cut,
For the old farmers' Christmas fires;
Where loud-tongued Gladness joins the throng,
And Winter meets the warmth of May,
Till feeling soon the heat too strong,
He rubs his shins, and draws away.
While snows the window-panes bedim,
The fire curls up a sunny charm,
Where, creaming o'er the pitcher's rim,
The flowering ale is set to warm;
Mirth, full of joy as summer bees,
Sits there, its pleasures to impart,
And children, 'tween their parent's knees,
Sing scraps of carols o'er by heart.
And some, to view the winter weathers,
Climb up the window-seat with glee,
Likening the snow to falling feathers,
In Fancy's infant ecstasy;
Laughing, with superstitious love,
O'er visions wild that youth supplies,
Of people pulling geese above,
And keeping Christmas in the skies.
As tho' the homestead trees were drest,
In lieu of snow, with dancing leaves;
As tho' the sun-dried martin's nest,
Instead of i'cles hung the eaves;
The children hail the happy day—
As if the snow were April's grass,
And pleas'd, as 'neath the warmth of May,
Sport o'er the water froze to glass.
Thou day of happy sound and mirth,
That long with childish memory stays,
How blest around the cottage hearth
I met thee in my younger days!
Harping, with rapture's dreaming joys,
On presents which thy coming found,
The welcome sight of little toys,
The Christmas gift of cousins round.
The wooden horse with arching head,
Drawn upon wheels around the room;
The gilded coach of gingerbread,
And many-colour'd sugar plum;
Gilt cover'd books for pictures sought,
Or stories childhood loves to tell,
With many an urgent promise bought,
To get to-morrow's lesson well.
And many a thing, a minute's sport,
Left broken on the sanded floor,
When we would leave our play, and court
Our parents' promises for more.
Tho' manhood bids such raptures die,
And throws such toys aside as vain,
Yet memory loves to turn her eye,
And count past pleasures o'er again.
Around the glowing hearth at night,
The harmless laugh and winter tale
Go round, while parting friends delight
To toast each other o'er their ale;
The cotter oft with quiet zeal
Will musing o'er his Bible lean;
While in the dark the lovers steal
To kiss and toy behind the screen.
Old customs! Oh! I love the sound,
However simple they may be:
Whate'er with time hath sanction found,
Is welcome, and is dear to me.
Pride grows above simplicity,
And spurns them from her haughty mind,
And soon the poet's song will be
The only refuge they can find.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Favorite Christmas Poems by James Daley. Copyright © 2006 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Gabriel's Message (Sabine Baring-Gould)Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913 (Robert Bridges)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (Bishop Phillips Brooks)
Christmas Song (Bliss Carman)
Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child (Lewis Carroll)
A Christmas Carol (G. K. Chesterton)
The House of Christmas (G. K. Chesterton)
December (John Clare)
A Christmas Carol (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
The Savior Must Have been a Docile Gentleman (Emily Dickinson)
Nativity (John Donne)
Jest 'Fore Christmas (Eugene Field)
Carol of the Field Mice, from The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
A Friend's Greeting (Edgar A. Guest)
The Oxen (Thomas Hardy)
Christmas [I] (George Herbert)
Christmas [II] (George Herbert)
Ceremonies for Christmas (Robert Herrick)
Christmas-Eve, Another Ceremony (Robert Herrick)
A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-Hall (Robert Herrick)
We Three Kings (John Henry Hopkins)
The Masque of Christmas (Ben Jonson)
Christmas in India (Rudyard Kipling)
Eddi's Service (Rudyard Kipling)
A Nativity (Rudyard Kipling)
Christmas Bells (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
The Three Kings (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (Martin Luther)
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (John Milton)
Silent Night (Joseph Mohr)
A Visit from St. Nicholas (Clement Clarke Moore)
French Noel (William Morris)
Good King Wenceslas (J. M. Neale)
"Hear the sledges with the bells" (Edgar Allan Poe)
A Christmas Carol (Christina Rossetti)
What Can I Give Him? (Christina Rossetti)
"Heap on more wood!" (Sir Walter Scott)
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (Edmund Hamilton Sears)
The Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Christopher Smart)
New Prince, New Pomp (Robert Southwell)
The Burning Babe (Robert Southwell)
Christmas at Sea (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Sleep, Baby, Sleep! (John Addington Symonds)
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night (Nahum Tate)
Christmas and New Year Bells (Alfred Lord Tennyson)
The Mahogany Tree (William Makepeace Thackeray)
Jack Frost (Celia Thaxter)
Mrs. Kriss Kringle (Edith M. Thomas)
The Nativity (Henry Vaughan)
The True Christmas (Henry Vaughan)
A Christmas Carol (George Wither)
"The Minstrels played their Christmas tune" (William Wordsworth)