Simon Lehmann/Getty Images Plus
- Christ’s Nativity
- Awake, glad heart! get up and sing!
- It is the birth-day of thy King.
- Awake! awake!
- The Sun doth shake
- Light from his locks, and all the way
- Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.
- Awake, awake! hark how th’ wood rings;
- Winds whisper, and the busy springs
- A concert make;
- Awake! awake!
- Man is their high-priest, and should rise
- To offer up the sacrifice.
- I would I were some bird, or star,
- Flutt’ring in woods, or lifted far
- Above this inn
- And road of sin!
- Then either star or bird should be
- Shining or singing still to thee.
- I would I had in my best part
- Fit rooms for thee! or that my heart
- Were so clean as
- Thy manger was!
- But I am all filth, and obscene;
- Yet, if thou wilt, thou canst make clean.
- Sweet Jesu! will then. Let no more
- This leper haunt and soil thy door!
- Cure him, ease him,
- O release him!
- And let once more, by mystic birth,
- The Lord of life be born in earth.
- The Incarnation, and Passion
- Lord, when Thou didst Thyself undress,
- Laying by Thy robes of glory,
- To make us more, Thou wouldst be less,
- And becam’st a woful story.
- To put on clouds instead of light,
- And clothe the morning-star with dust,
- Was a translation of such height
- As, but in Thee, was ne’er express’d.
- Brave worms and earth! that thus could have
- A God enclos’d within your cell,
- Your Maker pent up in a grave,
- Life lock’d in death, heav’n in a shell!
- Ah, my dear Lord ! what couldst thou spy
- In this impure, rebellious clay,
- That made Thee thus resolve to die
- For those that kill Thee every day?
- O what strange wonders could Thee move
- To slight Thy precious blood, and breath?
- Sure it was love, my Lord! for love
- Is only stronger far than death!
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) was a Welsh poet, and considered one of the “metaphysical poets” of 17th-century England. By trade he worked as a physician, and he is best known for his religious poems – which he began writing after reading the works of a contemporary and fellow-English poet, George Herbert. Vaughan’s style was marked by an ingenious use of monosyllables in his verse, alliteration and, like most of the metaphysical poets of the time, a compelling use of elaborate imagery. Merry Christmas.