A Reed by the River/Revelation
REVELATION
"O mother! I dreamed of a little, fair child, in the dark, tonight."But the mother she folded him close to her breast, and swathed him so warm and so white;"O mother! . . . I hear the lowing of kine beyond in the stable bare! . . . ""Nay, child, the viols and flutes are fine and the pomegranate blossoms are fair."
"Mother, my mother, I dreamed again, that down in the market-place,Wanders a child with eyes of pain, and grief in his lovely face!With never a rest for his little, white feet, nor a place for his weary head,I would go, I would go to the child so sweet, and bring him to my white bed!"
"Nay, sleep, my son, for the hour is late; there are none unhoused, unfed,The watchman calls from the city gate, and the feast of the Inn is spread.""O listen! . . . My mother, I hear a song so sweet and strange on the wind!O let me but go to the throng below, that wandering child to find!"'
"Hush, little one, sleep! 'Tis the viol again, all children are sheltered and warm;For dew lies white on Bethlehem's plain as thou on thy mother's arm;The shepherds are guarding their little soft sheep and the skies so silent are,"—But the child of the Inn, he smiled in his sleep; "O mother! . . . The Star! . . . The Star! . . ."