 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
365
5.
‘Sweet-sounding bells, blithe summoners to prayer!’The answer man can yield not ye bestow:
Your answer is a little Infant bare
Wafted to earth on night-winds whispering low.
Blow him to Bethlehem, airs angelic, blow!
There doth the Mother-maid his couch prepare:
His harbour is her bosom! Drop him there
Soft as a snow-flake on a bank of snow.
Sole Hope of man! Sole Hope for us, for Thee!
‘To us a Prince is given: a Child is born!’—
Thou sang'st of Bethlehem, and of Calvary,
The Maid Immaculate, and the twisted Thorn.
Where'er thou art, not far, not far is He
Whose banner whitens in yon Christmas morn!
Christmas, 1860.
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |