StoryTitle("caps", "Hymn on the Morning of~Christ's~Nativity") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was the Winter wilde, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the Heav'n-born-childe, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nature in aw to him ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Had doff't her gawdy trim,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With her great Master so to sympathize: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was no season then for her ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Only with speeches fair ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She woo's the gentle Air", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And on her naked shame, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Pollute with sinfull blame, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Confounded, that her Makers eyes", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Should look so neer upon her foul deformities. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But he her fears to cease, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sent down the meek-eyd Peace, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down through the turning sphear ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His ready Harbinger, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And waving wide her mirtle wand, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No War, or Battails sound", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was heard the World around, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The idle spear and shield were high up hung; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The hookéd Chariot stood ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Unstain'd with hostile blood, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Trumpet spake not to the arméd throng,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Kings sate still with awfull eye, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But peacefull was the night ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wherin the Prince of light ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His raign of peace upon the earth began:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Windes with wonder whist, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Smoothly the waters kist, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who now hath quite forgot to rave, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmeéd wave.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Stars with deep amaze ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stand fixt in stedfast gaze, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Bending one way their pretious influence, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And will not take their flight, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For all the morning light,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But in their glimmering Orbs did glow, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And though the shady gloom ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Had given day her room,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And hid his head for shame, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As his inferiour flame, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The new enlightn'd world no more should need; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He saw a greater Sun appear", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Shepherds on the Lawn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or ere the point of dawn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sate simply chatting in a rustick row; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Full little thought they than, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That the mighty Pan ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was kindly com to live with them below; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When such musick sweet", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Their hearts and ears did greet, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As never was by mortall finger strook, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Divinely-warbled voice ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Answering the stringéd noise, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As all their souls in blisfull rapture took: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Air such pleasure loth to lose, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nature that heard such sound ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Beneath the hollow round ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Of Cynthia's seat, the Airy region thrilling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now was almost won ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To think her part was don, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And that her raign had here its last fulfilling; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She knew such harmony alone ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At last surrounds their sight ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A Globe of circular light, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That with long beams the shame-fac't night array'd, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The helméd Cherubim ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sworded Seraphim,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Harping in loud and solemn quire, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such musick (as 'tis said) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Before was never made,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But when of old the sons of morning sung, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the Creator Great ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His constellations set, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And cast the dark foundations deep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ring out ye Crystall sphears, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Once bless our human ears, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "(If ye have power to touch our senses so) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And let your silver chime ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Move in melodious time; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And with your ninefold harmony ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For if such holy Song ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Enwrap our fancy long, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And speckl'd vanity ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Will sicken soon and die, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Hell it self will pass away, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yea Truth, and Justice then ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Will down return to men, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Th'enameld Arras of the Rain-bow wearing, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Mercy set between, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thron'd in Celestiall sheen, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Heav'n as at som festivall, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But wisest Fate sayes no, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This must not yet be so, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That on the bitter cross ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Must redeem our loss; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So both himself and us to glorifie: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The wakefull trump of doom must thunder through the deep, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With such a horrid clang ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As on mount Sinai rang ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "While the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The agéd Earth agast ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With terrour of that blast, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shall from the surface to the center shake; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When at the worlds last session, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And then at last our bliss ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Full and perfect is, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But now begins; for from this happy day ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Th'old Dragon under ground ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In straiter limits bound, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not half so far casts his usurpéd sway, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And wrath to see his Kingdom fail, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Oracles are dumm, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No voice or hideous humm ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Runs through the archéd roof in words deceiving. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Apollo from his shrine ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Can no more divine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No nightly trance, or breathéd spell, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The lonely mountains o're, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the resounding shore, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From haunted spring, and dale ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Edg'd with poplar pale, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The parting Genius is with sighing sent, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With flowre-inwov'n tresses torn ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In consecrated Earth, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And on the holy Hearth, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In Urns, and Altars round, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A drear, and dying sound ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Affrights the Flamins at their service quaint; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the chill Marble seems to sweat, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Peor, and Baalim, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Forsake their Temples dim, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With that twise-batter'd god of Palestine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And moonéd Ashtaroth, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Heav'ns Queen and Mother both, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Now sits not girt with Tapers holy shine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In vain the Tyrian Maids their wounded Thamuz mourn. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sullen Moloch fled, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hath left in shadows dred, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His burning Idol all of blackest hue, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In vain with Cymbals ring, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They call the grisly king, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In dismall dance about the furnace blue; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The brutish gods of Nile as fast, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor is Osiris seen ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In Memphian Grove, or Green, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Trampling the unshowr'd Grasse with lowings loud: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor can he be at rest ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Within his sacred chest, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The sable-stoléd Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He feels from Juda's Land ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The dredded Infants hand, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The rayes of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor all the gods beside, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Longer dare abide, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Our Babe to shew his Godhead true, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Can in his swadling bands controul the damnéd crew. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So when the Sun in bed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Curtain'd with cloudy red, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The flocking shadows pale, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Troop to th'infernall jail, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Each fetter'd Ghost slips to his severall grave, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the yellow-skirted Fayes, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fly after the Night-steeds, leaving their Moon-lov'd maze. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But see the Virgin blest, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hath laid her Babe to rest. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Time is our tedious Song should here have ending, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Heav'ns youngest teeméd Star, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hath fixt her polisht Car, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all about the Courtly Stable, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable.", "") ?>
Poet("John Milton", "1608–1674") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>