Classic Poem

Now birds who sleep in brittle trees
Sparrows and jays and chicadees,
The last last robin and the crow,
Awake beneath your thatch of snow
And hearing bells of midnight ring,
Rouse up and through the darkness sing
How in your dreams, across the snows,
A star, bright as a sun, arose.

And all you creatures furred and wise
Who in the darkness close bright eyes,
Twitch quivering nostrils, leave your sleep
And from your dens and hollows creep.
Hark, how the deer among the thorns
Raises the crosses of his horns
While like soft candles at a feast
The doe's eyes turn to face the east.
Gentle is he
As windless snow,
Kind as a tree
With shelter below,
As a stream of water
In August heat,
As a blueberry bush
Hidden and sweet,
Such is he
Who is born this day
In Bethlehem