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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=341962" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Christmas Antiphones</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I -- In Church</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou whose birth on earth<br> Angels sang to men,<br>While thy stars made mirth,<br>Saviour, at thy birth,<br> This day born again;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">As this night was bright<br> With thy cradle-ray,<br>Very light of light,<br>Turn the wild world's night<br> To thy perfect day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God whose feet made sweet<br> Those wild ways they trod,<br>From thy fragrant feet<br>Staining field and street<br> With the blood of God;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God whose breast is rest<br> In the time of strife,<br>In thy secret breast<br>Sheltering souls opprest<br> From the heat of life;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God whose eyes are skies<br> Love-lit as with spheres<br>By the lights that rise<br>To thy watching eyes,<br> Orbed lights of tears;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God whose heart hath part<br> In all grief that is,<br>Was not man's the dart<br>That went through thine heart,<br> And the wound not his?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Where the pale souls wail,<br> Held in bonds of death,<br>Where all spirits quail,<br>Came thy Godhead pale<br> Still from human breath -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Pale from life and strife,<br> Wan with manhood, came<br>Forth of mortal life,<br>Pierced as with a knife,<br> Scarred as with a flame.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou the Word and Lord<br> In all time and space<br>Heard, beheld, adored,<br>With all ages poured<br> Forth before thy face,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lord, what worth in earth<br> Drew thee down to die?<br>What therein was worth,<br>Lord, thy death and birth?<br> What beneath thy sky?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Light above all love<br> By thy love was lit,<br>And brought down the Dove<br>Feathered from above<br> With the wings of it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the height of night,<br> Was not thine the star<br>That led forth with might<br>By no worldly light<br> Wise men from afar?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet the wise men's eyes<br> Saw thee not more clear<br>Than they saw thee rise<br>Who in shepherd's guise<br> Drew as poor men near.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet thy poor endure,<br> And are with us yet;<br>Be thy name a sure<br>Refuge for thy poor<br> Whom men's eyes forget.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou whose ways we praised,<br> Clear alike and dark,<br>Keep our works and ways<br>This and all thy days<br> Safe inside thine ark.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Who shall keep thy sheep,<br> Lord, and lose not one?<br>Who save one shall keep,<br>Lest the shepherds sleep?<br> Who beside the Son?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">From the grave-deep wave,<br> From the sword and flame,<br>Thou, even thou, shalt save<br>Souls of king and slave<br> Only by thy Name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Light not born with morn<br> Or her fires above,<br>Jesus virgin-born,<br>Held of men in scorn,<br> Turn their scorn to love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou whose face gives grace<br> As the sun's doth heat,<br>Let thy sunbright face<br>Lighten time and space<br> Here beneath thy feet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Bid our peace increase,<br> Thou that madest morn;<br>Bid oppressions cease;<br>Bid the night be peace;<br> Bid the day be born.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">II--OUTSIDE CHURCH</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose days and ways<br> All the night makes dark,<br>What day shall we praise<br>Of these weary days<br> That our life-drops mark?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose mind is blind,<br> Fed with hope of nought;<br>Wastes of worn mankind,<br>Without heart or mind,<br> Without meat or thought;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We with strife of life<br> Worn till all life cease,<br>Want, a whetted knife,<br>Sharpening strife on strife,<br> How should we love peace?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ye whose meat is sweet<br> And your wine-cup red,<br>Us beneath your feet<br>Hunger grinds as wheat,<br> Grinds to make you bread.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ye whose night is bright<br> With soft rest and heat,<br>Clothed like day with light,<br>Us the naked night<br> Slays from street to street.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hath your God no rod,<br> That ye tread so light?<br>Man on us as God,<br>God as man hath trod,<br> Trod us down with might.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We that one by one<br> Bleed from either's rod.<br>What for us hath done<br>Man beneath the sun,<br> What for us hath God?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose blood is food<br> Given your wealth to feed,<br>From the Christless rood<br>Red with no God's blood,<br> But with man's indeed;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">How shall we that see<br> Nightlong overhead<br>Life, the flowerless tree,<br>Nailed whereon as we<br> Were our fathers dead -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose ear can hear,<br> Not whose tongue can name,<br>Famine, ignorance, fear,<br>Bleeding tear by tear<br> Year by year of shame,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Till the dry life die<br> Out of bloodless breast,<br>Out of beamless eye,<br>Out of mouths that cry<br> Till death feed with rest -</div><div style="margin:10px 0">How shall we as ye,<br> Though ye bid us, pray?<br>Though ye call, can we<br>Hear you call, or see,<br> Though ye show us day?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose name is shame,<br> We whose souls walk bare,<br>Shall we call the same<br>God as ye by name,<br> Teach our lips your prayer?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God, forgive and give,<br> For His sake who died?<br>Nay, for ours who live,<br>How shall we forgive<br> Thee, then, on our side?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">We whose right to light<br> Heaven's high noon denies,<br>Whom the blind beams smite<br>That for you shine bright,<br> And but burn our eyes,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With what dreams of beams<br> Shall we build up day,<br>At what sourceless streams<br>Seek to drink in dreams<br> Ere they pass away?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In what street shall meet,<br> At what market-place,<br>Your feet and our feet,<br>With one goal to greet,<br> Having run one race?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What one hope shall ope<br> For us all as one<br>One same horoscope,<br>Where the soul sees hope<br> That outburns the sun?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At what shrine what wine,<br> At what board what bread,<br>Salt as blood or brine,<br>Shall we share in sign<br> How we poor were fed?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In what hour what power<br> Shall we pray for morn,<br>If your perfect hour,<br>When all day bears flower,<br> Not for us is born?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">III--BEYOND CHURCH</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ye that weep in sleep,<br> Souls and bodies bound,<br>Ye that all night keep<br>Watch for change, and weep<br> That no change is found;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ye that cry and die,<br> And the world goes on<br>Without ear or eye,<br>And the days go by<br> Till all days are gone;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Man shall do for you,<br> Men the sons of man,<br>What no God would do<br>That they sought unto<br> While the blind years ran.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Brotherhood of good,<br> Equal laws and rights,<br>Freedom, whose sweet food<br>Feeds the multitude<br> All their days and nights</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With the bread full-fed<br> Of her body blest<br>And the soul's wine shed<br>From her table spread<br> Where the world is guest,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mingling me and thee,<br> When like light of eyes<br>Flashed through thee and me<br>Truth shall make us free,<br> Liberty make wise;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">These are they whom day<br> Follows and gives light<br>Whence they see to slay<br>Night, and burn away<br> All the seed of night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What of thine and mine,<br> What of want and wealth,<br>When one faith is wine<br>For my heart and thine<br> And one draught is health?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For no sect elect<br> Is the soul's wine poured<br>And her table decked;<br>Whom should man reject<br> From man's common board?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Gods refuse and choose,<br> Grudge and sell and spare;<br>None shall man refuse,<br>None of all men lose,<br> None leave out of care.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No man's might of sight<br> Knows that hour before;<br>No man's hand hath might<br>To put back that light<br> For one hour the more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Not though all men call,<br> Kneeling with void hands,<br>Shall they see light fall<br>Till it come for all<br> Tribes of men and lands.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No desire brings fire<br> Down from heaven by prayer,<br>Though man's vain desire<br>Hang faith's wind-struck lyre<br> Out in tuneless air.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One hath breath and saith<br> What the tune shall be -<br>Time, who puts his breath<br>Into life and death,<br> Into earth and sea.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To and fro years flow,<br> Fill their tides and ebb,<br>As his fingers go<br>Weaving to and fro<br> One unfinished web.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All the range of change<br> Hath its bounds therein,<br>All the lives that range<br>All the byways strange<br> Named of death or sin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Star from far to star<br> Speaks, and white moons wake,<br>Watchful from afar<br>What the night's ways are<br> For the morning's sake.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Many names and flames<br> Pass and flash and fall,<br>Night-begotten names,<br>And the night reclaims,<br> As she bare them, all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the sun is one,<br> And the sun's name Right;<br>And when light is none<br>Saving of the sun,<br> All men shall have light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">All shall see and be<br> Parcel of the morn;<br>Ay, though blind were we,<br>None shall choose but see<br> When that day is born.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Algernon+Charles+Swinburne">Algernon Charles Swinburne</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=341962" data-title="Christmas Antiphones de Algernon Charles Swinburne" data-description="I -- In Church

Thou whose birth on earth
 Angels sang to men,
While thy stars made mirth,
Saviour, at thy birth,
 This day born again;

As this night was bright
 With thy cradle-ray,
Very light of light,
Turn the wild world's night
 To thy perfec..."></div>
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