Scripture Verse

Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. Luke 2:15

Introduction

portrait
Samuel T. Coleridge
1772–1834

Words: Sam­uel T. Co­ler­idge, Si­byl­line Leaves (Lon­don: Rest Fen­ner, 1817), pag­es 265–67, cen­to. Ap­peared in Old Christ­mas Ca­rols, Part 1, ed­it­ed by Ri­chard R. Ter­ry (Lon­don: Burns, Oates & Wash­burne, 1923), num­ber 15.

Music: Old Al­sa­tian ca­rol (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

The shepherds went their hasty way,
And found the lowly stable shed
Where the virgin mother lay:
Now they checked their eager tread,
For to the Babe that to her clung,
A mother’s song the virgin sung.

They told her how a glo­ri­ous light,
Far streaming from a heavenly throng.
Round them shone, suspending night!
While more sweet than mother’s song,
Blest angels hailed the Sav­ior’s birth;
Glory to God, and peace on earth.

She listened to the tale divine,
And closer still the Babe she pressed;
While she cried, The Babe is mine!
Mother love o’erflowed her breast:
Joy rose within her, like summer’s morn;
Peace, peace on earth; its Prince is born.

Then, cried she, is my soul elate,
That strife should vanish, battle cease;
Poor am I, of low estate,
Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Joy rises in me like summer’s morn
;
Peace, peace on earth; its Prince is born.