When first I, sleepless, saw it Slow breaking through the dark— Nay, hear me, Balthazar, And thou, O Melchior, hark!—
When first I saw the star It bore the form of a child, It held in its hand a sceptre, Or the cross of the undefiled.
Lo! somewhere on the earth It shines above His rest— The Royal One, the Babe, On mortal mother’s breast.
Now haste we forth to find Him— To worship at His feet, To Him of whom the prophets sang Bearing oblations meet!”
Then the Three Holy Kings Went forth in eager haste, With servants and with camels, Toward the desert waste.
Ah! knew they what they bore? Gold for the earthly king— Frankincense for the God— Myrrh for man’s suffering.
With breath of costly spices And precious gums of Isis, The desert air was sweet, As on they fared by day and night Judea’s King to greet.
The strange star went before them, They followed where it led; “’Twill guide us to His presence,” Jasper, the holy, said.
They crossed deep-flowing rivers, They climbed the mountains high, They slept in dreary places Under the lonely sky.
One day, where stretched the desert Before them far and wide, They saw a smoke-wreath curling A spreading palm beside;