The Time Draws Near

 The time draws near the birth of Christ;

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other in the mist.

 

Four voices of four hamlets round, 

From far and near, on mead and moor,

Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound:

 

Each voice four changes on the wind,

That now dilate, and now decrease, 

Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.

 

This year I slept and woke with pain, 

I almost wished no more to wake,

And that my hold on life would break

Before I heard those bells again:

 

But they my troubled spirit rule, 

For they controlled me when a boy;

They bring me sorrow touched by joy,

 The merry merry bells of Yule.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

 

WE HAVE A WINNER FOR THE GIVEAWAY! OUR ANONYMOUS COMMENTER WON THE NAME-DRAW!  I'LL GIVE YOU A COUPLE DAYS TO RESPOND BUT IF I DON'T HEAR FROM YOU, I'LL HAVE TO PICK A NEW NAME, SINCE THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO REACH OUT. YOU CALLED ME LIV, THOUGH, SO WE MIGHT KNOW EACH OTHER? LOL

Drop me a comment with your address: I won't publish it, just use it to send the package! Come to that, if anyone else wants to send me their address, I'm down to be pen-pals!

Merry Chrismas, darlings. I'm starting to feel the truth of it in the air!

I'm off to sing of it, write of it, read and breathe of it. See you here tomorrow.