Christmas poems

 / page 4 of 35 /
star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Olde, Olde, very Olde Man; or The Age and Long Life of Thomas Parr

© John Taylor

Good wholesome labour was his exercise,
Down with the lamb, and with the lark would rise:
In mire and toiling sweat he spent the day,
And to his team he whistled time away:

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Biography

© John Masefield

  Yet when I am dust my penman may not know
  Those water-trampling ships which made me glow,
  But think my wonder mad and fail to find,
  Their glory, even dimly, from my mind,
  And yet they made me:

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Doll Upon The Topmost Bough

© Vachel Lindsay

This doll upon the topmost bough,
This playmate-gift, in Christmas dress,
Was taken down and brought to me
One sleety night most comfortless.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

A Christmas Eve Choral

© Bliss William Carman

Halleluja!
What sound is this across the dark
While all the earth is sleeping? Hark!
Halleluja! Halleluja! Halleluja!

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Christmas Cards

© Franklin Pierce Adams

Before you send me up that card
  With rime and diction far from subtle,
Hear what a now rebellious bard
  Says in a quasi-pre-rebuttal.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Song

© Eugene Field

Once a lovely shining star,
Seen by shepherds from afar,
Gently moved until its light
Made a manger's cradle bright.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Courtship Of Young John

© Alice Guerin Crist

But he little knew what a treasure he’d won.
What a wonderful life had just begun;
And how bright the sunshine that lay upon
The future pathway of ‘that young John’.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Scout Toward Aldie

© Herman Melville

Nine Blue-coats went a-nutting
  Slyly in Tennessee-
Not for chestnuts - better than that-
  Hugh, you bumble-bee!
Nutting, nutting -
  All through the year there's nutting!

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

A Christmas Folksong

© Paul Laurence Dunbar

DE win' is blowin' wahmah,

An hit's blowin' f'om de bay;

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

On A Fortification At Boston Begun By Women

© Benjamin Tompson

A Grand attempt some Amazonian Dames

Contrive whereby to glorify their names,

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Daisy - On Finding one in Bloom on Christmas-day

© James Montgomery

There is a flower, a little flower
With silver crest and golden eye,
That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Irish Emigrant’s Mother

© Denis Florence MacCarthy

"Oh! come, my mother, come away, across the sea-green water;
Oh! come with me, and come with him, the husband of thy daughter;
Oh! come with us, and come with them, the sister and the brother,
Who, prattling climb thy ag'ed knees, and call thy daughter-mother.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Balloons

© Sylvia Plath

Since Christmas they have lived with us,
Guileless and clear,
Oval soul-animals,
Taking up half the space,
Moving and rubbing on the silk

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Christmas Creek

© Henry Kendall

Phantom streams were in the distance - mocking lights of lake and pool -

Ghosts of trees of soft green lustre - groves of shadows deep and cool!

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The Plea Of The Midsummer Fairies

© Thomas Hood

I
'Twas in that mellow season of the year
When the hot sun singes the yellow leaves
Till they be gold,—and with a broader sphere

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The True Christmas

© Henry Vaughan

So stick up ivy and the bays,

And then restore the heathen ways.

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Grandpa Vogt’s—1959 by Ben Vogt : American Life in Poetry #247 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Lau

© Ted Kooser

Family photographs, how much they do capture in all their elbow-to-elbow awkwardness. In this poem, Ben Vogt of Nebraska describes a color snapshot of a Christmas dinner, the family, impatient to tuck in, arrayed along the laden table. I especially like the description of the turkey. Grandpa Vogt’s-1959

The food is on the table. Turkey tanned

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

The King's Tragedy James I. Of Scots.—20th February 1437

© Dante Gabriel Rossetti

I Catherine am a Douglas born,

A name to all Scots dear;

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Marmion: a Christmas Poem

© Sir Walter Scott



Heap on more wood! the wind is chill;

star nullstar nullstar nullstar nullstar null

Supper at the Mill

© Jean Ingelow

Frances.
Well, good mother, how are you?
M. I'm hearty, lass, but warm; the weather's warm:
I think 'tis mostly warm on market-days.
I met with George behind the mill: said he,
"Mother, go in and rest a while."