Classic Poem

IN THE CARMELITE CHURCH, DUBLIN

Foreninst the Crib there kneels a little child,
Behind him in her ragged shawl his mother,
For all the ages that have passed one child
Still finds God in another.

Now, look-a how he wonders when he sees
The shepherds with their lambs beside the manger,
The cattle, poor dumb creatures, looking down
Upon the little Stranger.

An' there's our Saviour lying in the hay,
Behind Him in her shawl His watchful mother;
Two mothers with their sons, each knows the joys
And sorrows of the other.

The father kneels away there by the door,
The hands he clasps in prayer are rough with labour;
The likes of him that hunger and that toil
Once called Saint Joseph neighbour.

Outside the Church the people travel by,
The sick and sad, the needy, the neglected.
But just across the threshold Bethlehem lies,
Where none will be rejected.