And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night

Wherein the Prince of light
His reign of peace upon the earth began :

The winds, with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kiss'd,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

The stars, with deep amaze,

Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze, Bending one way their precious influence,

And will not take their flight

For all the morning light
Of Lucifer, that often warn’d them thence;

But in their glimmering orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,
The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,

And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame
The new-enlighten'd world no more should need;

He saw a greater Sun appear
Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear.

The shepherds on the lawn,

Or ere the point of dawn,
Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below;

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep,

When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,

HYMN FOR THE NATIVITY.

57

As never was by mortal finger strook;

Divinely warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blissful rapture took :

The air, such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.

Nature, that heard such sound

Beneath the hollow round
Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling,

Now was almost won

To think her part was done,
And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all heaven and earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light,
That with long beams the shame-faced night array'd;

The helmed cherubim

And sworded seraphim
Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,

Harping in loud and solemn choir,
With inexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born Heir.

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made,
But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,
And the well-balanced world on hinges hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,

Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so,

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time,
And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow;

And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full concert to th' angelic symphony.

For if such holy song

Enwrap our fancy long,
Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold,

And speckled vanity

Will sicken soon and die,
And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,

And hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

Yea, Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,
Orb'd in a rainbow, and like glories wearing:

Mercy will sit between,

Throned in celestial sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;

And heaven, as at some festival,
Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall.

But wisest Fate says no,

This must not yet be so;
The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy,

That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;
So both himself and us to glorify:

Yet first, to those ychain'd in sleep,
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep ;

With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang,
While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:

The aged earth aghast

With terror of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the centre shake;

When at the world's last session,
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne.

And then at last our bliss
Full and perfect is ;

HYMN FOR THE NATIVITY.

59

But now begins: for from this happy day

Th' old dragon under ground

lu straiter limits bound,
Not half so far casts his usurped sway,

And wroth to see his kingdom fail,
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb;

No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving:

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.

No mighty trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

The lonely mountains o'er,

And the resounding shore,
A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;

From haunted spring and dale,

Edged with poplar pale,
The parting genius is with sighing sent :

With flower-inwoven tresses torn,
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

In consecrated earth,

And on the holy hearth,
The Lares and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;

In urns and altars round,

A drear and dying sound
Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;

And the chill marble seems to sweat,
While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat.

Peor and Baalim

Forsake their temples dim,
With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine;

And mooned Ashtaroth,

Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine;

The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;
In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.

And sullen Moloch, fled,

Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue;

In vain, with cymbals' ring,

They call the grisly king,
In dismal dance about the furnace blue;

The brutish gods of Nile as fast,
Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.

Nor is Osiris seen,

In Memphian grove or green,
Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud :

Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest;
Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud:

In vain with timbrell'd anthems dark
The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipp'd ark.

He feels from Judah's land

The dreaded Infant's hand;
The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;

Nor all the gods beside

Longer dare abide,
Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:

Our Babe, to sbew His Godhead true,
Can in His swaddling-bands control the damned crew.

So when the sun in bed,

Curtain'd with cloudy red, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The flocking shadows pale

Troop to th' infernal jail;
Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave;

And the yellow-skirted fays
Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.

But see! the Virgin bless’d
Hath laid her Babe to rest;