| |
| LITTLE 1 pomp or earthly state | |
| On His lonely steps might wait; | |
| Few the homages and small, | |
| That the guilty earth at all | |
| Was permitted to accord | 5 |
| To her King and hidden Lord: | |
| Therefore do we set more store | |
| On these few, and prize them more: | |
| Dear to us for this account | |
| Is the glory of the Mount, | 10 |
| When bright beams of light did spring, | |
| Through the sackcloth covering, | |
| Rays of glory forced their way | |
| Thro’ the garment of decay, | |
| With which, as with a cloak, he had | 15 |
| His divinest splendour clad: | |
| Dear the lavish ointment shed | |
| On his feet and sacred head; | |
| And the high-raised hopes sublime, | |
| And the triumph of the time, | 20 |
| When thro’ Zion’s streets the way | |
| Of her peaceful conqueror lay, | |
| Who, fulfilling ancient fame, | |
| Meek and with salvation came. | |
| |
| But of all this scanty state | 25 |
| That upon his steps might wait, | |
| Dearest are those Magian kings, | |
| With their far-brought offerings. | |
| From what region of the morn | |
| Are ye come, thus travel-worn, | 30 |
| With those boxes pearl embost, | |
| Caskets rare and gifts of cost? | |
| While your swart attendants wait | |
| At the stable’s outer gate, | |
| And the camels lift their head | 35 |
| High above the lowly shed; | |
| Or are seen a long-drawn train, | |
| Winding down into the plain, | |
| From beyond the light-blue line | |
| Of the hills in distance fine. | 40 |
| Dear for your own sake, whence are ye? | |
| Dearer for the mystery | |
| That is round you?—on what skies | |
| Gazing, saw you first arise | |
| Through the darkness that clear star, | 45 |
| Which has marshall’d you so far, | |
| Even unto this strawy tent— | |
| Dancing up the Orient? 2 | |
| Shall we name you kings indeed, | |
| Or is this our idle creed?— | 50 |
| Kings of Seba, with the gold | |
| And the incense long foretold? | |
| Would the Gentile world by you | |
| First-fruits pay of tribute due; | |
| Or have Israel’s scattered race, | 55 |
| From their unknown hiding-place, | |
| Sent to claim their part and right | |
| In the child new-born to-night? | |
| But although we may not guess | |
| Of your lineage, not the less | 60 |
| We the self-same gifts would bring, | |
| For a spiritual offering. | |
| May the frankincense in air | |
| As it climbs instruct our prayer, | |
| That it ever upward tend, | 65 |
| Ever struggle to ascend, | |
| Leaving earth, yet ere it go, | |
| Fragrance rich diffuse below. | |
| As the myrrh is bitter sweet, | |
| So in us may such things meet, | 70 |
| As unto the mortal taste | |
| Bitter seeming, yet at last | |
| Shall to them who try be known, | |
| To have sweetness of their own— | |
| Tears for sin, which sweeter far | 75 |
| Than the world’s mad laughters are; | |
| Desires, that in their dying give | |
| Pain, but die that we may live. | |
| And the gold from Araby— | |
| Fitter symbol who could see | 80 |
| Of the love, which, thrice refined, | |
| Love to God and to our kind, | |
| Duly tendered, He will call, | |
| Choicest sacrifice of all. | |
| |
| Thus so soon as far apart | 85 |
| From the proud world, in our heart, | |
| As in stable dark defiled, | |
| There is born the Eternal Child, | |
| May to Him the spirit’s kings | |
| Yield their choicest offerings, | 90 |
| May the Affections, Reason, Will, | |
| Wait upon Him to fulfil | |
| His behests, and early pay | |
| Homage to His natal day. | |
