Classic Poem

Wanted — A Christmas carol,
For Christian souls to sing;
Short, sweet, with a Godly moral,
Bright as a humming-bird's wing.

To sing by the bier of the dead " old year, "
While the New Year's birth we wait;
With a bright career for your carrier,
In eighteen sixty-eight.

Lessons of deepest sorrow
Little our poet lacks;
Four years of a war's black horror,
Two of a — — " cotton tax " !
Enough! from the rhymer's quiver
This moral at once climbs o'er —
" Charity, " now or never!
Now " Honest " or — nevermore!

Stand fast by the cloudless splendor
Of your father's ancient fame!
Sons of the true and tender,
Heirs of the Saxon name!
We can die! but we cannot surrender
One ray of that ancient fame!

Was it dark on the hills of Judah?
Was it bleak where the shadows fell
On the stable, the stall, the manger,
The couch of Emmanuel?
Is your cradle of sorrow ruder
Than any in Israel? —

Than theirs by the rushing Tiber?
Than his in old Egypt's reeds? —
In hardness, only and ever,
The sinew of empire breeds;
This stands in the world forever,
The first and the last of the creeds!

Stand fast by the cloudless splendor
Of your fathers' faith and fame!
Walk still with the true and tender
Of the Anglo-Saxon name.
And truth shall arise and render
Her wreath, at last, to your claim.

Though the darkness of desolation
Comes close to each home and heart,
Though the " Raven " retains his station,
And his shadow will not depart —
His burthen of life is lightest
Who stoutly accepts the past,
Yet lives in the hopes of the brightest,
And " works " for the best till the last!

In the which hope, (as Shakespeare
Says in his cunningest play)
We wish you as happy a New Year
As you make our Christmas to-day.