Poems (Dorr)/Midnight Chimes

by Julia Caroline Dorr

MIDNIGHT CHIMES

Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
 Down yon lonely height
Hear the joyous summons pealing
 Through the starry night.
Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
 Ring the Christmas bells;
From the church-tower on the hill
 Clear the music swells.

Far and near the listening mountains
 Bend to catch the strain,
Dome, and peak, and shadowy fastness
 Join the glad refrain,—
Noel! Noel! All the pine-trees
 Feel a subtile thrill,
And the hemlock groves, responsive,
 Whisper and are still.

Noel! Noel! Through the valley
 Where the river goes
In and out between the meadows,
 Soft the music flows,
And the river, dumbly sleeping,
 Feels its cold heart beat
Answering to the pulsing rhythm
 Of the anthem sweet.

Noel! Noel! Hark! a rustling
 On the frosty air,
Where the aspens, all a-quiver,
 Bend their branches bare;
Airy birches, stately maples,
 Black against the sky,
Wave their leafless boughs like banners
 When a king goes by.

Noel! Noel! Sweet-breathed oxen,
 In the farm-yard close,
Lift their horned heads to listen,
 Startled from repose;
Then they sleep as slept the white flocks
 On Judea's hills,
While again the olden glory
 Earth with rapture fills,

Noel! Noel! Little children
 In their soft nests smile,
Dreaming of fair choiring angels
 Floating near the while;
Voiceless snow-birds, half awakened,
 Stir their drowsy wings
With, mayhap, a vague, unconscious
 Sense of heavenly things.

Noel! Noel! In the church-yard,
 Where the low graves lie,
Light winds bear the strains melodious,
 Soft as spirit's sigh;
Do ye hear it, O ye sleepers,
 As it dies and swells?
Hear your ears the mystic music
 Of earth's Christmas bells?