HEAP on more wood!--the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will,
We'll keep our Christmas merry still.
Each age has deemed the new-born
The fittest time for festal cheer;
Even, heathen yet, the savage Dane
At Iol1 more deep the mead did drain;
High on the beach his galleys drew,
And feasted all his pirate crew;
Then in his low and pine-built hall,
Where shields and axes decked the wall,
They gorged upon the half-dressed steer;
Caroused in seas of sable beer;
While round, in brutal jest, were thrown
The half-gnawed rib, and marrow-bone;
Or listened all, in grim delight,
While Scalds yelled out the joys of fight.
Then forth in frenzy would they hie,
While wildly loose their red locks fly,
And dancing round the blazing pile
They make such barbarous mirth the while,
As best might to the mind recall
The boisterous joys of Odin's3 hall.
And well our Christian sires of old
Loved when the year its course had rolled,
And brought blithe Christmas back again,
With all its hospitable train.
Domestic and religious rite
Gave honour to the holy night:
On Christmas-eve the bells were rung;
On Christmas-eve the mass was sung:
(1) lol, or Jul-hence our Yule, the old word for Christmas. It is a Scandinavian word, and means time of festivity, and specially of the festivities in honour of the god Frey, or the sun.
(3) Odin-the Jupiter of the North, called Woden by the Anglo-Saxons. We have traces of the name in Wednesday, Wednesbury, Wanborough, &c. See Dr. Leo's treatise" On Anglo-Saxon Names," p. 4.
That only night in all the year,
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen;1
The hall was dressed with holly green;
Forth to the wood did merry men go,
To gather in the mistletoe.
Then opened wide the Baron's hall
To vassal, tenant, serf,2 and all;
Power laid his rod of rule aside,
And Ceremony doffed his pride.
The heir, with roses in his shoes,3
That night might village partner choose;
The lord, underogating, share
The vulgar game of "post and pair."
All hailed, with uncontrolled delight,
And general voice, the happy night,
That to the cottage, as the crown,
Brought tidings of salvation down.
The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide;
The huge hall-table's oaken face,
Scrubbed till it shone, the day to grace,
Bore then upon its massive board
No mark to part the squire and lord.
Then was brought in the lusty brawn,
By old blue-coated serving-man;
Then the grim boar's head frowned on high
Crested with bays and rosemary.
Well can the green-garbed ranger tell,
How, when, and where, the monster fell;
What dogs before his death he tore,
And all the baiting of the boar.
(1) Donned her kirtle sheen-put on her gay holiday gown. Kirtle, from the Anglo-Saxon cyrtel, is connected with gird, and denotes a flowing garment for man or woman, requiring to be restrained by a belt or girdle.
(2) Vassal-tenant-serf-A vassal is a dependent upon a superior lord, and owes service; a tenant holds land or houses of another, and owes rent; a serf is a slave, and owes himself and all he has.
(3) Roses in his shoes-The roses were decorations made of ribbon, like what are now called rosettes.
(4) Underogating-without derogating from, or lessening, bis dignity.
(5) Post and pair—a game at cards, common in early times.
The wassail1 round, in good brown bowls,
Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls,
There the huge sirloin reeked; hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie:
Nor failed old Scotland to produce,
At such high tide her savoury goose.
Then came the merry masquers in,
And carols roared with blithesome din;
If unmelodious was the song,
It was a hearty note, and strong.
Who lists may in their mumming3 see
Traces of ancient mystery ;*
White shirts supplied the masquerade,
And smutted cheeks the visors made;
But oh! what masquers, richly dight,
Can boast of bosoms half so light!
England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
"Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale;
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year.
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.
THOU art, O God! the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from thee:
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.
(1) Wassail-according to Webster, from the Anglo-Saxon was hæl, healthliquor a beverage formerly much used at feasts.
(2) Trowls-or trolls-moves about, goes round.
(3) Mumming—from the German mumme, a mask-masking, or performing in masks.
(4) Ancient mystery-A mystery was a sort of dramatic performance, on some religious subject, common in the middle ages.
(5) Visor-from the Latin visus, through the French visière-a mask to protect the face, forming part of the helmet: also the upper part of the same, which was perforated to see through-hence the name.
(6) Dight-from the Anglo-Saxon gediht, set in order-dressed, deckt.
When day, with farewell beam, delays
Among the opening shades of even,
And we can almost think we gaze
Through golden vistas1 into heaven;
Those hues, that mark the sun's decline,
So soft, so radiant, Lord! are thine.
When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes;
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord! are thine.
When youthful spring around us breathes,
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh;
And every flower the summer wreathes,
Is born beneath that kindling eye :
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.
GRONGAR HILL.2
SILENT Nymph!3 with curious eye,
Who, the purple evening, lie1
On the mountain's lonely van,
Beyond the noise of busy man,
Painting fair the form of things,
While the yellow linnet sings;
Or the tuneful nightingale
Charms the forest with her tale;
(1) Vista-from the Italian vistà, a sight—a view or prospect seen through an opening.
(2) Grongar Hill claims a high place among descriptive poems. It is vivid, clear, and picturesque; which qualities may in part be due to the writer's profession, which was, in early youth, that of a painter. Dr. Johnson says of this popular poem:-"The scenes which it displays are so pleasing, the images which they raise so welcome to the mind, and the reflections of the writer so consonant to the general sense and experience of mankind, that when it is once read, it will be read again."
(3) Silent nymph!-The poet here calls in painting to aid poetry-her "sister muse"-in depicting the landscape. It may be, however, remarked that there is no classical muse of Painting.
(4) The grammar halts here; it should be "liest" to be consistent with the phrase "thy various hues" which follows.
Come, with all thy various hues,
Come, and aid thy sister muse;
Now, while Phoebus riding high,
Gives lustre to the land and sky!
Grongar Hill' invites my song,
Draw the landscape bright, and strong;
Grongar! in whose mossy cells,
Sweetly musing, Quiet dwells;
Grongar! in whose silent shade,
For the modest muses made,
So oft I have, the evening still,
At the fountain of a rill,
Sat upon a flowery bed,
With my hand beneath my head,
While strayed my eyes o'er Towy's flood,
Over mead and over wood,
From house to house, from hill to hill,
Till Contemplation had her fill.
About his chequered sides I wind,
And leave his brooks and meads behind,
And
groves and grottoes, where I lay,
And vistas shooting beams of day.
Wide and wider spreads the vale,
As circles on2 a smooth canal:
The mountains round-unhappy fate
Sooner or later, of all height-
Withdraw their summits from the skies,
And lessen as the others rise.
Still the prospect wider spreads,
Still it widens, widens still,
And sinks the newly-risen hill.
Now I gain the mountain's brow:
What a landscape lies below!
No clouds, no vapours intervene ;
But the gay, the open scene,
Does the face of nature show
In all the hues of heaven's bow;
(1) Grongar Hill-an eminence in Caermarthenshire, near the banks of the Towy.
(2) Wide and wider, &c.-i. e. as the traveller mounts the hill the limits of his prospect extend as circles, &c.
(3) The others--the others which lie beyond, and which come into view as you ascend the hill.
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