christmas day.

I'm home for christmas once again this year and enjoying every minute of it, although there are elements and people in Rochester that I miss more than usual this time around. The poem I received was described by the sender as cheesy, but amidst all of the other unfortunate trappings of this time of year, this poem reads beautifully. I'll share:

Calm on the Listening Ear of Night
(1834)
Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876)

CALM on the listening ear of night,
Come heav’n’s melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver mantled plains.
Celestial choirs from courts above
Shed sacred glories there;
And angels with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.
The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,
And greet from all their holy heights
The Day-spring from on high.
O’er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm;
And Sharon waves in solemn praise
Her silent groves of palm.
“Glory to God!” the lofty strain
The realm of ether fills;
How sweeps the song of solemn joy
Oe’r Judah's sacred hills!
“Glory to God!” the sounding skies
Loud with their anthems ring:
“Peace on the earth, good will to
men,
From heaven’s eternal King.”
Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!
The Savior now is born:
More bright on Bethlehem’s joyous
plains
Breaks the first Christmas morn.
This day shall Christian tongues be
mute,
And Christian hearts be cold?
O catch the anthem that from heaven
O’er Judah’s mountains rolled.
When burst upon that listening night
The high and solemn lay,
“Glory to God; on earth be peace.”
Salvation comes today.

❅ ❅ ❅

Often sung to:
“St. Agnes” (1866)
John Bacchus Dykes
“Bethlehem”

I earnestly hope everyone is having a joyous and relaxing holiday.