All hail to the days that merit more praise Than all the rest of the year, And welcome the nights that double delights As well for the poor as the peer! Good fortune attend each merry man's friend That doth but the best that he may, Forgetting old wrongs with carols and songs To drive the cold winter away.
Tis ill for a mind to anger inclined To think of small injuries now, If wrath be to seek, do not lend her your cheek Nor let her inhabit thy brow. Cross out of thy books malevolent looks, Both beauty and youth's decay, And wholly consort with mirth and sport To drive the cold winter away.
This time of the year is spent in good cheer And neighbours together do meet, To sit by the fire, with friendly desire, Each other in love to greet. Old grudges forgot are put in the pot, All sorrows aside they lay, The old and the young doth carol this song, To drive the cold winter away.
When Christmas's tide comes in a like a bride, With holly and ivy clad, Twelve days in the year much mirth and good cheer In every household is had. The country guise is then to devise Some gambols of Christmas play, Whereat the young men do the best that they can To drive the cold winter away.
White are the far-off fields, And white the fading forests grow; The wind dies out amongst the tides Denser still the snow, A gathering weight on roof and tree Falls down scarce audibly.
The meadows and far-sheeted streams Lie still without a sound; Like some soft minister of dreams The snowfall hoods me around; In wood and water, earth and air, Silence is everywhere.
Save when at lonely spells Some farmer's sleigh is urged on, With rustling runners and sharp bells, Swings by me and is gone; From the empty space I hear A sound remote and clear;
The barking of a dog, To cattle, is sharply pued, Borne, echoing from some wayside stall Or barnyard far afield; Then all is silent and the snow Falls settling soft and slow
The evening deepens and the grey Folds closer Earth to sky The world seems so shrouded, so far away. Its noises sleep, and I As secret as yon buried stream Plod dumbly on and dream.
I dream I dream I dream I dream I dream I dream I dream I dream