| |
(Christmas Eve)
IT was the calm and silent night! | |
| Seven hundred years and fifty-three | |
| Had Rome been growing up to might, | |
| And now was queen of land and sea. | |
| No sound was heard of clashing wars— | 5 |
| Peace brooded o’er the hushed domain: | |
| Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars | |
| Held undisturbed their ancient reign, | |
| In the solemn midnight, | |
| Centuries ago. | 10 |
| |
| ’T was in the calm and silent night! | |
| The senator of haughty Rome, | |
| Impatient, urged his chariot’s flight, | |
| From lordly revel rolling home; | |
| Triumphal arches, gleaming, swell | 15 |
| His breast with thoughts of boundless sway; | |
| What recked the Roman what befell | |
| A paltry province far away, | |
| In the solemn midnight, | |
| Centuries ago? | 20 |
| |
| Within that province far away | |
| Went plodding home a weary boor; | |
| A streak of light before him lay, | |
| Fallen through a half-shut stable-door | |
| Across his path. He passed—for naught | 25 |
| Told what was going on within; | |
| How keen the stars, his only thought— | |
| The air how calm, and cold, and thin, | |
| In the solemn midnight, | |
| Centuries ago! | 30 |
| |
| O, strange indifference! low and high | |
| Drowsed over common joys and cares; | |
| The earth was still—but knew not why | |
| The world was listening, unawares. | |
| How calm a moment may precede | 35 |
| One that shall thrill the world for ever! | |
| To that still moment, none would heed, | |
| Man’s doom was linked no more to sever— | |
| In the solemn midnight, | |
| Centuries ago! | 40 |
| |
| 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 shame had worn, | 45 |
| 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! | 50 |
| |
