Classic Poem

On Christmas Eve, so runs the marvellous tale,
Heaven once flashed through her amethystine veil,
And while this raptured earth beheld and heard
Those star-eclipsing choirs, the Eternal Word
Put on our flesh to bear our human bale.

Faint with the sweets such sanctities exhale,
Deep-brooding Doubt lets fall his winnowing flail,
And feels his weary heart divinely stirred
On Christmas Eve.

For sudden lustres play o'er hill and dale,
The silence thrills to music, mothers pale
Smile like Madonnas, and the Christ, unblurred
By mists of time, unslain, unsepulchred,
Life's cup re-consecrates to Holy Grail
On Christmas Eve.