THE FROSTED TREES. Anon. WHAT strange enchantment meets my view, Or am I borne to regions new, To see the glories there? Last eve, when sunset fill'd the sky And sleepy mists came down to lie But now the scene is changed, and all The trees last eve so straight and tall, Are bending on the view; And streams of living daylight fall The boughs are strung with glittering pearls, Seeming in wild fantastic whirls The work of fairy land. Each branch stoops meekly with the weight, Upon its graceful curves, And made the fibres spring elate, Oh! I could dream the robe of heaven, From the sky at silent even For the morning's glorious show. HUMAN PERFECTION. Ben Jonson. It is not growing like a tree Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night, CHRISTMAS CHIMES. Япон. THE chimes, the chimes of Motherland, Those chimes that tell a thousand tales, Sweet tales of olden time! And ring a thousand memories At vesper and at prime At bridal and at burial, For cottager and king— Those chimes, those glorious Christmas chimes, How blessedly they ring! Those chimes, those chimes of Motherland, Upon a Christmas morn, Outbreaking as the angels did, For a Redeemer born! How merrily they call afar, To cot and baron's hall, With holly deck'd and mistletoe, The chimes of England, how they peal Where hymn and swelling anthem fill And then those Easter bells in spring, And sing the rising of the Lord, I love ye, chimes of Motherland, WHILE THE CHRISTMAS LOG IS BURNING. Eliza Cook. HAIL to the night when we gather once more, All the forms we love to meet; When we've many a guest that is dear to our breast And the household dog at our feet. Who would not be in the circle of glee, Where heart to heart is yearning, When joy breathes out in the laughing shout, While the Christmas log is burning? 'Tis one of the fairy hours of life, When the world seems all of light; For the thought of woe, or the name of a foe, Ne'er darkens the festive night; When bursting mirth rings round the hearth, Then is the time when the grey old man |