Midnight Chimes
Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
Down yon lonely height
Hear the joyous summons pealing
Through the starry night.
Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
Ring the Christmas bells;
From the church-tower on the hill
Clear the music swells.
Far and near the listening mountains
Bend to catch the strain,
Dome, and peak, and shadowy fastness
Join the glad refrain,—
Noel! Noel! All the pine-trees
Feel a subtile thrill,
And the hemlock groves, responsive,
Whisper and are still.
Noel! Noel! Through the valley
Where the river goes
In and out between the meadows,
Soft the music flows,
And the river, dumbly sleeping,
Feels its cold heart beat
Answering to the pulsing rhythm
Of the anthem sweet.
Noel! Noel! Hark! a rustling
On the frosty air,
Where the aspens, all a-quiver,
Bend their branches bare;
Airy birches, stately maples,
Black against the sky,
Wave their leafless boughs like banners
When a king goes by.
Noel! Noel! Sweet-breathed oxen,
In the farm-yard close,
Lift their horned heads to listen,
Startled from repose;
Then they sleep as slept the white flocks
On Judea’s hills,
While again the olden glory
Earth with rapture fills.
Noel! Noel! Little children
In their soft nests smile,
Dreaming of fair choiring angels
Floating near the while;
Voiceless snow-birds, half awakened,
Stir their drowsy wings
With, mayhap, a vague, unconscious
Sense of heavenly things.
Noel! Noel! In the church-yard,
Where the low graves lie,
Light winds bear the strains melodious,
Soft as spirit’s sigh;
Do ye hear it, O ye sleepers,
As it dies and swells?
Hear your ears the mystic music
Of earth’s Christmas bells?