Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

A Christmas Carol

1. The shepherds went their hasty way,
   And found the lowly stable-shed
   Where the Virgin-Mother lay:
   And now they checked their eager tread,
   For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
   A Mother’s song the Virgin-Mother sung.II.
   They told her how a glorious light,
   Streaming from a heavenly throng.
   Around them shone, suspending night!
   While sweeter than a mother’s song,
   Blest Angels heralded the Savior’s birth,
   Glory to God on high! and Peace on Earth.

   III.
   She listened to the tale divine,
   And closer still the Babe she pressed:
   And while she cried, the Babe is mine!
   The milk rushed faster to her breast:
   Joy rose within her, like a summer’s morn;
   Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.

   IV.
   Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace,
   Poor, simple, and of low estate!
   That strife should vanish, battle cease,
   O why should this thy soul elate?
   Sweet Music’s loudest note, the Poet’s story,
   Didst thou ne’er love to hear of fame and glory?

   V.
   And is not War a youthful king,
   A stately Hero clad in mail?
   Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;
   Him Earth’s majestic monarchs hail
   Their friends, their playmate! and his bold bright eye
   Compels the maiden’s love-confessing sigh.

   VI.
   Tell this in some more courtly scene,
   To maids and youths in robes of state!
   I am a woman poor and mean,
   And wherefore is my soul elate.
   War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,
   That from the aged father’s tears his child!

   VII.
   A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,
   He kills the sire and starves the son;
   The husband kills, and from her board
   Steals all his widow’s toil had won;
   Plunders God’s world of beauty; rends away
   All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.

   VIII.
   Then wisely is my soul elate,
   That strife should vanish, battle cease:
   I’m poor and of low estate,
   The Mother of the Prince of Peace.
   Joy rises in me, like a summer’s morn:
   Peace, Peace on Earth! The Prince of Peace is born!