In The Yule-Log Glow--Book 3 | Page 4

no more to sever,?In the solemn midnight?Centuries ago.
It is the calm and solemn night!?A thousand bells ring out and throw?Their joyous peals abroad, and smite?The darkness, charmed, and holy now!?The night that erst no name had worn,?To it a happy name is given;?For in that stable lay, new-born,?The peaceful Prince of earth and heaven,?In the solemn midnight?Centuries ago.
_Alfred H. Domett._
THE THREE DAMSELS.
(SUGGESTED BY A DRAWING OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI'S.)
Three damsels in the queen's chamber,?The queen's mouth was most fair;?She spake a word of God's mother?As the combs went in her hair.
Mary that is of might,?Bring us to thy Son's sight.
They held the gold combs out from her?A span's length off her head;?She sang this song of God's mother?And of her bearing-bed.
Mary most full of grace,?Bring us to thy Son's face.
When she sat at Joseph's hand,?She looked against her side;?And either way from the short silk band?Her girdle was all wried.
Mary that all good may,?Bring us to thy Son's way.
Mary had three women for her bed,?The twain were maidens clean;?The first of them had white and red,?The third had riven green.
Mary that is so sweet,?Bring us to thy Son's feet.
She had three women for her hair,?Two were gloved soft and shod;?The third had feet and fingers bare,?She was the likest God.
Mary that wieldeth land,?Bring us to thy Son's hand.
She had three women for her ease,?The twain were good women;?The first two were the two Maries,?The third was Magdalen.
Mary that perfect is,?Bring us to thy Son's kiss.
Joseph had three workmen in his stall,?To serve him well upon;?The first of them were Peter and Paul,?The third of them was John.
Mary, God's handmaiden,?Bring us to thy Son's ken.
"If your child be none other man's,?But if it be very mine,?The bedstead shall be gold two spans,?The bed-foot silver fine."
Mary that made God mirth,?Bring us to thy Son's birth.
"If the child be some other man's,?And if it be none of mine,?The manger shall be straw two spans,?Betwixen kine and kine."
Mary that made sin cease,?Bring us to thy Son's peace.
Christ was born upon this wise:?It fell on such a night,?Neither with sounds of psalteries,?Nor with fire for light.
Mary that is God's spouse,?Bring us to thy Son's house.
The star came out upon the east?With a great sound and sweet:?Kings gave gold to make him feast?And myrrh for him to eat.
Mary of thy sweet mood,?Bring us to thy Son's good.
He had two handmaids at his head,?One handmaid at his feet;?The twain of them were fair and red,?The third one was right sweet.
Mary that is most wise,?Bring us to thy Son's eyes.
Amen.
_Algernon Charles Swinburne._
KING OLAF'S CHRISTMAS.
At Drontheim, Olaf the King?Heard the bells of Yule-tide ring,?As he sat in his banquet hall,?Drinking the nut-brown ale,?With his bearded Berserks hale?And tall.
Three days his Yule-tide feasts?He held with Bishops and Priests,?And his horn filled up to the brim;?But the ale was never too strong,?Nor the Sagaman's tale too long,?For him.
O'er his drinking-horn, the sign?He made of the cross divine?As he drank, and muttered his prayers;?But the Berserks evermore?Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor?Over theirs.
The gleams of the fire-light dance?Upon helmet and hauberk and lance?And laugh in the eyes of the king;?And he cries to Halfred the Scald,?Gray-bearded, wrinkled, and bald:?"Sing!
"Sing me a song divine,?With a sword in every line,?And this shall be thy reward;"?And he loosened the belt at his waist,?And in front of the singer placed?His sword.
"Quern-biter of Hakon the Good,?Wherewith at a stroke he hewed?The millstone through and through,?And Foot-breadth of Thoralf the Strong?Were neither so broad nor so long?Nor so true."
Then the Scald took his harp and sang,?And loud through the music rang?The sound of that shining word;?And the harp-strings a clangor made?As if they were struck with the blade?Of a sword.
And the Berserks round about?Broke forth into a shout?That made the rafters ring;?They smote with their fists on the board,?And shouted, "Long live the sword?And the King!"
But the king said, "O my son,?I miss the bright word in one?Of thy measures and thy rhymes."?And Halfred the Scald replied,?"In another 'twas multiplied?Three times."
Then King Olaf raised the hilt?Of iron, cross-shaped and gilt,?And said, "Do not refuse;?Count well the gain and the loss,?Thor's hammer or Christ's cross:?Choose!"
And Halfred the Scald said, "This,?In the name of the Lord, I kiss,?Who on it was crucified!"?And a shout went round the board,?"In the name of Christ the Lord?Who died!"
Then over the waste of snows?The noonday sun uprose?Through the driving mists revealed,?Like the lifting of the Host,?By incense-clouds almost?Concealed.
On the shining wall a vast?And shadowy cross was cast?From the hilt of the lifted sword,?And in foaming cups of ale?The Berserks drank "Was-hael!?To the Lord!"
_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow._
HALBERT AND HOB.
Here is a thing that happened. Like wild beasts whelped, for den, In a wild part of North England, there lived once two wild men, Inhabiting one homestead, neither a hovel nor hut,?Time out of mind