The hips and haws hang drearily;
Roll’d in a ball the sulky owl
Creeps far into his hollow tree.
In abbeys and cathedrals dim
The birth of Christ is acted o’er;
The kings of Cologne worship him,
Balthazar, Jasper, Melchior.
The shepherds in the field at night
Beheld an angel glory-clad,
And shrank away with sore affright.