Deep shadows mar the pearly snow;
Light flickers on the wall; While childhood's laugh, as music's flow
Resoundeth through the hall.
Now echoes from the years return;—
Ring out thou pealing bell! While thought doth last, or memory burn
Thou may'st not strike their knell. And visions from the earlier days
Within the mind arise, Illumined by a golden haze;
For earth seems near the skies.
And round our hearth the voices throng
Which tender memories bring; Those tones which died in even-song,
Those stilled in budding spring.
Once more we gather, as in one,
To list the tale oft told; That legacy from sire to son
Which waxeth never old.
II.
No shrill-toned clarion wakes the night
O'er Juda's slumbering plains; No trumpet blast of armèd might
Sounds forth "Messiah reigns."
No curious crowd demands a sight;
No trophy flameth high; But seraph hosts, on wings of light,
Haste through the ebon sky.
With glad acclaim His name they sing
Whose praise all heaven doth fill; At whose command to earth they bring
The message of goodwill.
Oh wonderful! the angels' Lord
In human guise arrayed; He, by archangels great adored,
Within a manger laid.
Where sages, guided by the star,
Kneel by that Holy One; As, with rich offerings from afar,
They greet the Virgin's son.