O, Christmas skies of blue December,
This day of earthly days remember—
He loved you, skies! to him your blue
Was beautiful! O, sunlight gleaming
Like silver on the rivers streaming
Out to the sea; and mountain’s dew
XII.
Bespangled—and ye velvet valleys,
Green-bosomed, where the south winds dallies—
He loved you! And ye birds that sing—