Poems (Freston)/Christmas Eve
For works with similar titles, see Christmas Eve.
CHRISTMAS EVE
Alone, I said, this Christmas Eve! Ah, never less alone! For round me here, in countless throng, Joys laugh and sorrows moan; And Memory, from her mystic realm, Leads forth her willing train,And fancies group about my chair To gladden or to pain.
And faces loved and faces dead And ones I ne'er may see,Come round me here to-night, and keep This Christmas Eve with me. Oh, thou dear face! 'tis not alone To-night thou art with me! For in my heart is ever still The deathless thought of thee!
But thou'rt far away in being, Farther still in soul and heart,And my voice is heard but dimly Through the noises of life's Mart. But to-morrow,—when the curtain Of Creation, shall be furled, To show the Heart of Divine Love That beats for all the world,
And we learn the holy meaningOf that first glad Christmas Morn, When Peace embodied, Hope and Faith, In Bethlehem were born,—Shall you send across the distance,—Over mountain, vale and sea,—Like a swift-winged bird of summer, A kindly thought to me?