Christmas Poetry

[Trumpetmaster]

Traditional

Then be ye glad, good people,

This night of all the year,

And light ye up your candles:

His star is shining near.

[Trumpetmaster]

The Holly and the Ivy

The holly and the ivy

Now both are full well grown.

Of all the trees are in the wood,

The holly bears the crown.

[Trumpetmaster]

At Christmas Time

At Christmas time, we deck the hall

With holly branches brave and tall,

With sturdy pine and hemlock bright
And in the Yule log's dancing light
We tell old tales of field and fight

At Christmas time.

At Christmas time we pile the board

With flesh and fruit and vintage stored,

And mid the laughter and the glow
We tread a measure soft and slow,
And kiss beneath the mistletoe

At Christmas time.

English Traditional

[Trumpetmaster]

Christmas Bells

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet
The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom


Had rolled along
The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,


A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,


And with the sound
The Carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,


And made forlorn
The households born

Of Peace on earth, good-willl to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said;


‘For hate is strong,
And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!


The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!’

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[Trumpetmaster]

Bethlehem

A little child,
A shining star.
A stable rude,
The door ajar.
Yet in that place,
So crude, folorn,
The Hope of all
The world was born.

Author Unknown

[Trumpetmaster]

Carol

I saw a sweet, a seemly sight,
A blissful bird, a blossom bright,
That morning made and mirth among:
A maiden mother meek and mild
In cradle keep a simple child
That softly slept; she sat and sang:

"Lullay, lulla, balow,
My babe, sleep softly now."

English, 15th century

[Trumpetmaster]

Carol of the Birds

Whence comes this rush of wings afar,
Following straight the Noel star?
Birds from the woods in wondrous flight,
Bethlehem seek this Holy Night.
"Tell us, ye birds, why come ye here,
Into this stable, poor and drear?"
"Hast'ning we seek the new-born King,
And all our sweetest music bring."

Hark how the green-finch bears his part,
Philomel, too, with tender heart,
Chants from her leafy dark retreat,
Re, mi, fa, sol, in accents sweet.

Angels and shepherds, birds of the sky,
Come where the Son of God doth lie;
Christ on earth with man doth well,
Join in the shout, Noel, Noel.

Old French Carol from Bas Query

[Trumpetmaster]

A Carol for the Children

God rest you merry, Innocents,
Let nothing you dismay,
Let nothing wound an eager heart
Upon this Christmas day.
Yours be the genial holly wreaths,
The stockings and the tree;
An aged world to you bequeths
Its own forgotten glee.
Soon, soon enough come cureller gifts,
The anger and the tears;
Between you now there sparsely drifts
A handful yet of years.

Oh, dimly, dimly glows the star
Through the electric throng;
The bidding in temple and bazaar
Drowns out the silver song.

The ancient altars smoke afresh,
The ancient idols stir;
Faint in the reek of burning flesh
Sink frankincense and myrrh.

Gaspar, Balthazar, Melchior!
Where are your offerings now?
What greetings to the Prince of War,
His darkly branded brow?

Two ultimate laws alone we know,
The ledger and the sword --
So far away, so long ago,
We lost the infant Lord.

Only the children clasp His hand;
His voice speaks low to them,
And still for them the shining band
Wings over Bethlehem.

God rest you merry, Innocents,
While innocence endures,
A sweeter Christmas than we to ours
May you bequeath to yours.

Ogden Nash

[Trumpetmaster]

Heigh Ho, The Holly

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh ho, sing heigh ho, unto the green holly;
most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh ho, sing heigh ho, unto the green holly:
most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

William Shakespeare

[Haggis@wk]

Let's not forget the real reason for the season.......OUTLIGHT YOUR NEIGHBORS>>>>>MUBAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!!

Wizards of Winter

If there is true justice in the universe every dictionary published should have this as an illustration next to the word "tacky."

The really scary thing is...I can't stop watching it. It is so deliciously over the top and so...soo.....damn! Words fail me.

( Ed. "Your going to watch it again? that the 8th time!"

Hey, I can stop any time I want, I just don't want to...did you catch that slight riff?? I swear it was from "God rest you merry gentlemen" I need to listen again… There! didya hear it?

Ed. "Jeez, why don't you just drink the rest of the Kool-Aid and play it backwards?"

Well, THAT'S just silly, I don't think.....wait, do you mean play the video backwards or just the song?? Will the song be the same length played backwards?...would the beats match the video? only backwards?.... that would be sooooo cool...

Ed. "Sigh......Merry Christmas all”)

Sorry TM but this thread was getting SOOOOOO lame.......

[barfle]

Wow!

[jamiebk]

Let's not forget the real reason for the season.......OUTLIGHT YOUR NEIGHBORS>>>>>MUBAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!!

Wizards of Winter

If there is true justice in the universe every dictionary published should have this as an illustration next to the word "tacky."

The really scary thing is...I can't stop watching it. It is so deliciously over the top and so...soo.....damn! Words fail me.

( Ed. "Your going to watch it again? that the 8th time!"

Hey, I can stop any time I want, I just don't want to...did you catch that slight riff?? I swear it was from "God rest you merry gentlemen" I need to listen again… There! didya hear it?

Ed. "Jeez, why don't you just drink the rest of the Kool-Aid and play it backwards?"

Well, THAT'S just silly, I don't think.....wait, do you mean play the video backwards or just the song?? Will the song be the same length played backwards?...would the beats match the video? only backwards?.... that would be sooooo cool...

Ed. "Sigh......Merry Christmas all”)

Sorry TM but this thread was getting SOOOOOO lame.......

That guy is so cool. Can you say computer "geek-asaurous"? That vid was all over the place last year and there was much written about the guy. He did all of this himself working for at least 2 months to set it all up. The music was broadcast over an FM band so that it could only be heard from a car radio passing by. There was such a parade of people and cars that the local police asked him to turn it off (which he did). One of the beer companies picked it up and made a commercial out of it which unfortunately I never saw.

[Angie Parkes]

Apart from Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales, which is too long to post, this is my favourite Christmas poem. A bit sombre, perhaps, but I always find it a rewarding read.

Back in high school, a boy I had a huge crush on used to read this at the Christmas assembly. He had a wonderful bass voice (still does; he and his family are good friends of ours) and read this beautifully. Maybe that's why it's still a favourite.

And I, for one, found the posted poems very enjoyable, TM.

--------------------------------------------
The Journey of the Magi
T S Eliot

"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty, and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

[Trumpetmaster]

Let's not forget the real reason for the season.......OUTLIGHT YOUR NEIGHBORS>>>>>MUBAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!!

Wizards of Winter

If there is true justice in the universe every dictionary published should have this as an illustration next to the word "tacky."

The really scary thing is...I can't stop watching it. It is so deliciously over the top and so...soo.....damn! Words fail me.

( Ed. "Your going to watch it again? that the 8th time!"

Hey, I can stop any time I want, I just don't want to...did you catch that slight riff?? I swear it was from "God rest you merry gentlemen" I need to listen again… There! didya hear it?

Ed. "Jeez, why don't you just drink the rest of the Kool-Aid and play it backwards?"

Well, THAT'S just silly, I don't think.....wait, do you mean play the video backwards or just the song?? Will the song be the same length played backwards?...would the beats match the video? only backwards?.... that would be sooooo cool...

Ed. "Sigh......Merry Christmas all”)

Sorry TM but this thread was getting SOOOOOO lame.......

No problem....
It is for "Poetry"

[RC]

Merry Christmas! to old friends, new friends, friends I haven't met and even those left over.

I have no poetry, just wanted to pop in and assure the Beethoven.com diehards that you are in my thoughts.

[barfle]

Merry Christmas
even if you live on an isthmus.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

...or a peninsula. Good to hear from you, RC. Joyous holidays!

[Haggis@wk]

...or a peninsula. Good to hear from you, RC. Joyous holidays!

AH! Then isthmus be a peninsula!

where did I leave that eggnog?

[BigJon]

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!