CHRISTMAS knows a merry, merry place,
Where he goes with fondest face,
Brightest eye, brightest hair:
Tell the Mermaid where is that one place,
Where?
Raleigh.
’Tis by Devon’s glorious halls,
Whence, dear Ben, I come again:
Bright of golden roofs and walls—
El Dorado’s rare domain—
Seem those halls when sunlight launches
Shafts of gold thro’ leafless branches,
Where the winter’s feathery mantle blanches
Field and farm and lane.
Chorus. Christmas knows a merry, merry place, &c.
Drayton.
’Tis where Avon’s wood-sprites weave
Through the boughs a lace of rime,
While the bells of Christmas Eve
Fling for Will the Stratford-chime
O’er the river-flags emboss’d
Rich with flowery runes of frost—
O’er the meads where snowy tufts are toss’d—
Strains of olden time.
Chorus. Christmas knows a merry, merry place, &c.
Shakespeare’s Friend.
’Tis, methinks, on any ground
Where our Shakespeare’s feet are set.
There smiles Christmas, holly-crown’d
With his blithest coronet:
Friendship’s face he loveth well:
’Tis a countenance whose spell
Sheds a balm o’er every mead and dell
Where we used to fret.
Chorus. Christmas knows a merry, merry place, &c.