ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY

I

This is the month, and this the happy morn,

Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King,

Of wedded maid and Virgin Mother born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;

For so the holy sages once did sing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,

And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

 

II

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid aside, and , here with us to be,

Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

 

John Milton

1629