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| WHAT sweeter music can we bring | |
| Than a carol for to sing | |
| The birth of this our Heavenly King? | |
| Awake the voice! awake the string! | |
| Heart, ear, and eye, and everything | 5 |
| Awake! the while the active finger | |
| Runs division with the singer. | |
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From the Flourish they came to the Song
1. Dark and dull night fly hence away! | |
| And give the honour to this day | |
| That sees December turn’d to May. | 10 |
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| 2. If we may ask the reason, say | |
| The why and wherefore all things here | |
| Seem like the spring-time of the year. | |
| |
| 3. Why does the chilling winter’s morn | |
| Smile like a field beset with corn? | 15 |
| Or smell like to a mead new shorn, | |
Thus on a sudden?
4. Come and see | |
| The cause why things thus fragrant be: | |
| ’Tis He is born, whose quickening birth | |
| Gives life and lustre, public mirth, | 20 |
| To heaven and the under-earth. | |
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Chorus We see Him come, and know Him ours, | |
| Who with his sunshine and his showers | |
| Turns all the patient ground to flowers. | |
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| 1. The darling of the world is come, | 25 |
| And fit it is we find a room | |
To welcome Him.
2. The nobler part | |
| Of all the house here is the heart, | |
| |
Chorus Which we will give Him; and bequeath | |
| This holly and this ivy wreath | 30 |
| To do Him honour, who’s our King | |
| And Lord of all this revelling. | |
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