Until the forward-creeping tides Began to foam, and we to draw From deep to deep, to where w A great ship lift her shining sides.

The man we loved was there on dec But thrice as large as man hel

To greet us. Up the side I we And fell in silence on his neck:

Whereat those maidens with one min Bewail'd their lot; I did them

'We served thee here,' they said And wilt thou leave us now behind?

And while the wind began to sweep

A music out of sheet and shroud, We steer'd her toward a crimson That landlike slept along the deep.

CII.

THE time draws near the birth of Christ; The moon is hid, the night is still ;

A single church below the hill

Is pealing, folded in the mist.

A single peal of bells below,

That wakens at this hour of rest A single murmur in the breast, That these are not the bells I know.

Like strangers' voices here they sound,

In lands where not a memory strays, Nor landmark breathes of other days, But all is new unhallow'd ground.

CIII.

THIS holly by the cottage-eave,

To night, ungather'd, shall it s We live within the stranger's la And strangely falls our Christmas e

Our father's dust is left alone

And silent under other snows:

There in due time the woodbine The violet comes, but we are gone.

No more shall wayward grief abuse The genial hour with mask and

For change of place, like growth Has broke the bond of dying use.

Let cares that petty shadows cast,
By which our lives are chiefly pro
A little spare the night I loved,
And hold it solemn to the past.

161

et no footstep beat the floor,

Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm;
For who would keep an ancient form

ugh which the spirit breathes no more?

either song, nor game, nor feast,

Nor harp be touch 'd, nor flute be blown ; No dance, no motion, save alone lightens in the lucid east

sing worlds by yonder wood.

Long sleeps the summer in the seed; Run out your measur'd arcs, and lead closing cycle rich in good.

CIV.

RING out wild bells to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:

The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow :

The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more;

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.