.

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Monday, December 24, 2018

The Eve of Christmas

XXVIII.

The time draws near the birth of Christ:
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round,
From far and near, on mead and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if a door
Were shut between me and the sound:

Each voice four changes on the wind,
That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,
Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.

This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish’d no more to wake,
And that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again:

But they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll’d me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch’d with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Eve of Christmas"

2 comments:

Franco Aragosta said...

Poignant!

Thank you for introducing a piece of Christmas verse by a great master I'd never seen before.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the blend of merriment, boisterousness, solemn reverence, majestic splendor, and poignant nostalgic rememberabce of the Lst Edens of Christmases past.

I'm gong to watch The Bishop' Wife at 8:00 tonight. I never miss it when I have a cance to see it. It's the dearest way of keeping the past alive I've ever known.

MERrY CHRIStMAS, FJ, and may God bless you and your family in the New Year!

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Thank you, Franco. Have a blessed Christmas, and MUCH health and JOY in the New Year!