Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HOLY CHRISTMAS, by GEORGE HERBERT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: All after pleasures as I rid one day Last Line: Till ev'n his beams sing, and my music shine. Variant Title(s): Christmas Subject(s): Christmas; Nativity, The | ||||||||
ALL after pleasures as I rid one day, My horse and I both tir'd, bodie and minde, With full crie of affections, quite astray; I took up in the next inne I could finde. There when I came, whom found I but my deare, My dearest Lord, expecting till the grief Of pleasures brought me to him, readie there To be all passengers most sweet relief? O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light, Wrapt in nights mantle, stole into a manger; Since my dark soul and brutish is thy right, To man of all beasts be not thou a stranger: Furnish and deck my soul, that thou mayst have A better lodging then a rack or grave. THE shepherds sing; and shall I silent be? My God, no hymne for thee? My soul's a shepherd too: a flock it feeds Of thoughts, and words, and deeds. The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy grace Enriching all the place. Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers Out-sing the day-light houres. Then we will chide the sunne for letting night Take up his place and right: We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should Himself the candle hold. I will go searching, till I finde a sunne Shall stay till we have done; A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly As frost-nipt sunnes look sadly. Then we will sing and shine all our own day, And one another pay: His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine, Till ev'n his beams sing, and my music shine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIFFERENT VIEWS; A CHRISMAS DUET by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY AN UNMERRY CHRISTMAS by AMBROSE BIERCE CHRISTMAS IN CHINATOWN by AUGUST KLEINZAHLER CHRISTMAS TREE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS ISAIAH'S COAL by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS SOUNDS OF THE RESURRECTED DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (#3): 1. BEAST, PEACH.. by MARVIN BELL A DIALOGUE ANTHEM by GEORGE HERBERT |
|