But once I hear the blackbird in Leighlin hedges call,
The foolishness is on me, and the wild tears fall!
AUNT MARY
A Christmas Chant
By Robert Stephen Hawker
Now, of all the trees by the king’s highway,
Which do you love the best?
O! the one that is green upon Christmas Day,
The bush with the bleeding breast.
Now the holly with her drops of blood for me: