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Christmas Antiphones

I — In

Thou whose birth on earth   Angels sang to men,

While thy stars made mirth,

Saviour, at thy birth,   This day born again;

As this night was bright   With thy cradle-ray,

Very light of light,

Turn the wild world's night   To thy perfect day.

God whose feet made sweet   Those wild ways they trod,

From thy fragrant

Staining field and street   With the blood of God;

God whose breast is rest   In the time of strife,

In thy secret

Sheltering souls opprest   From the heat of life;

God whose eyes are skies   Love-lit as with

By the lights that

To thy watching eyes,   Orbed lights of tears;

God whose heart hath part   In all grief that is,

Was not man's the

That went through thine heart,   And the wound not his?

Where the pale souls wail,   Held in bonds of death,

Where all spirits quail,

Came thy Godhead pale   Still from human breath -Pale from life and strife,   Wan with manhood,

Forth of mortal life,

Pierced as with a knife,   Scarred as with a flame.

Thou the Word and Lord   In all time and

Heard, beheld, adored,

With all ages poured   Forth before thy face,

Lord, what worth in earth   Drew thee down to die?

What therein was worth,

Lord, thy death and birth?   What beneath thy sky?

Light above all love   By thy love was lit,

And brought down the

Feathered from above   With the wings of it.

From the height of night,   Was not thine the

That led forth with

By no worldly light   Wise men from afar?

Yet the wise men's eyes   Saw thee not more

Than they saw thee

Who in shepherd's guise   Drew as poor men near.

Yet thy poor endure,   And are with us yet;

Be thy name a

Refuge for thy poor   Whom men's eyes forget.

Thou whose ways we praised,   Clear alike and dark,

Keep our works and

This and all thy days   Safe inside thine ark.

Who shall keep thy sheep,   Lord, and lose not one?

Who save one shall keep,

Lest the shepherds sleep?   Who beside the Son?

From the grave-deep wave,   From the sword and flame,

Thou, even thou, shalt

Souls of king and slave   Only by thy Name.

Light not born with morn   Or her fires above,

Jesus virgin-born,

Held of men in scorn,   Turn their scorn to love.

Thou whose face gives grace   As the sun's doth heat,

Let thy sunbright

Lighten time and space   Here beneath thy feet.

Bid our peace increase,   Thou that madest morn;

Bid oppressions cease;

Bid the night be peace;   Bid the day be born.

DE

We whose days and ways   All the night makes dark,

What day shall we

Of these weary days   That our life-drops mark?

We whose mind is blind,   Fed with hope of nought;

Wastes of worn mankind,

Without heart or mind,   Without meat or thought;

We with strife of life   Worn till all life cease,

Want, a whetted knife,

Sharpening strife on strife,   How should we love peace?

Ye whose meat is sweet   And your wine-cup red,

Us beneath your

Hunger grinds as wheat,   Grinds to make you bread.

Ye whose night is bright   With soft rest and heat,

Clothed like day with light,

Us the naked night   Slays from street to street.

Hath your God no rod,   That ye tread so light?

Man on us as God,

God as man hath trod,   Trod us down with might.

We that one by one   Bleed from either's rod.

What for us hath

Man beneath the sun,   What for us hath God?

We whose blood is food   Given your wealth to feed,

From the Christless

Red with no God's blood,   But with man's indeed;

How shall we that see   Nightlong

Life, the flowerless tree,

Nailed whereon as we   Were our fathers dead -We whose ear can hear,   Not whose tongue can name,

Famine, ignorance, fear,

Bleeding tear by tear   Year by year of shame,

Till the dry life die   Out of bloodless breast,

Out of beamless eye,

Out of mouths that cry   Till death feed with rest -How shall we as ye,   Though ye bid us, pray?

Though ye call, can

Hear you call, or see,   Though ye show us day?

We whose name is shame,   We whose souls walk bare,

Shall we call the

God as ye by name,   Teach our lips your prayer?

God, forgive and give,   For His sake who died?

Nay, for ours who live,

How shall we forgive   Thee, then, on our side?

We whose right to light   Heaven's high noon denies,

Whom the blind beams

That for you shine bright,   And but burn our eyes,

With what dreams of beams   Shall we build up day,

At what sourceless

Seek to drink in dreams   Ere they pass away?

In what street shall meet,   At what market-place,

Your feet and our feet,

With one goal to greet,   Having run one race?

What one hope shall ope   For us all as

One same horoscope,

Where the soul sees hope   That outburns the sun?

At what shrine what wine,   At what board what bread,

Salt as blood or brine,

Shall we share in sign   How we poor were fed?

In what hour what power   Shall we pray for morn,

If your perfect hour,

When all day bears flower,   Not for us is born?

ND

Ye that weep in sleep,   Souls and bodies bound,

Ye that all night

Watch for change, and weep   That no change is found;

Ye that cry and die,   And the world goes

Without ear or eye,

And the days go by   Till all days are gone;

Man shall do for you,   Men the sons of man,

What no God would

That they sought unto   While the blind years ran.

Brotherhood of good,   Equal laws and rights,

Freedom, whose sweet

Feeds the multitude   All their days and

With the bread full-fed   Of her body

And the soul's wine

From her table spread   Where the world is guest,

Mingling me and thee,   When like light of

Flashed through thee and

Truth shall make us free,   Liberty make wise;

These are they whom day   Follows and gives

Whence they see to

Night, and burn away   All the seed of night.

What of thine and mine,   What of want and wealth,

When one faith is

For my heart and thine   And one draught is health?

For no sect elect   Is the soul's wine

And her table decked;

Whom should man reject   From man's common board?

Gods refuse and choose,   Grudge and sell and spare;

None shall man refuse,

None of all men lose,   None leave out of care.

No man's might of sight   Knows that hour before;

No man's hand hath

To put back that light   For one hour the more.

Not though all men call,   Kneeling with void hands,

Shall they see light

Till it come for all   Tribes of men and lands.

No desire brings fire   Down from heaven by prayer,

Though man's vain

Hang faith's wind-struck lyre   Out in tuneless air.

One hath breath and saith   What the tune shall be -Time, who puts his

Into life and death,   Into earth and sea.

To and fro years flow,   Fill their tides and ebb,

As his fingers

Weaving to and fro   One unfinished web.

All the range of change   Hath its bounds therein,

All the lives that

All the byways strange   Named of death or sin.

Star from far to star   Speaks, and white moons wake,

Watchful from

What the night's ways are   For the morning's sake.

Many names and flames   Pass and flash and fall,

Night-begotten names,

And the night reclaims,   As she bare them, all.

But the sun is one,   And the sun's name Right;

And when light is

Saving of the sun,   All men shall have light.

All shall see and be   Parcel of the morn;

Ay, though blind were we,

None shall choose but see   When that day is born.

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Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and col…
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