The Holy Night

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Vocal Recording: MP3 / OGG

Source: Elva S. Smith and Alice I. Hazeltine, Christmas In Legend And Story: A Book For Boys and Girls. 1915; Project Gutenberg Etext 11014.

We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem;
The dumb kine from their fodder turning them,
    Softened their horned faces
    To almost human gazes
    Toward the newly Born:
The simple shepherds from the star-lit brooks
    Brought visionary looks,
As yet in their astonied hearing rung
    The strange sweet angel-tongue:
The magi of the East, in sandals worn,
    Knelt reverent, sweeping round,
    With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground,
    The incense, myrrh, and gold
These baby hands were impotent to hold:
So let all earthlies and celestials wait
    Upon thy royal state.
    Sleep, sleep, my kingly One!

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