James Elroy Flecker
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Joseph
- Mary, art thou the litttle maid
- Who plucked me flowers in Spring?
- I know thee not; I feel afraid:
- Thou'rt strange this evening.
- A sweet and rustic girl I won
- What time the woods were green;
- No woman with deep eyes that shone,
- And the pale brows of a Queen.
Mary (inattentive to his words)
- A stranger came with feet of flame
- And told me this strange thing, --
- For all I was a village maid
- My son should be a King.
Joseph
- A King, dear wife? Who ever knew
- Of Kings in stables born!
Mary
- Do you hear, in the dark and starlit blue
- The clarion and the horn?
Joseph
- Mary, alas, lest grief and joy
- Have sent thy wits away;
- But let me look on this my boy,
- And take the wraps away.
Mary
Joseph
- I dare not gaze:
- Light streams from every limb.
Mary
- The winter sun has stored his rays,
- And passed the fire to him.
- Look Eastward, look! I hear a sound,
- O Joseph, what do you see?
Joseph
- The snow lies quiet on the ground
- And glistens on the tree;
- The sky is bright with a star's great light,
- And clearly I behold
- Three Kings descending yonder hill,
- Whose crowns are crowns of gold.
- O Mary, what do you hear and see
- With your brow toward the West?
Mary
- The snow lies glisening on the tree
- And silent on Earth's breast;
- And strong and tall, with lifted eyes
- Seven shepherds walk this way,
- And angels breaking from the skies
- Dance, and sing hymns, and pray.
Joseph
- I wonder much at these bright Kings;
- The shepherds I despise.
Mary
- You know not what a shepherd sings,
- Nor see his shining eyes.
- Had I the power
- To Midas given of old
- To touch a flower
- And leave the petals gold,
- I then might touch thy face,
- Delightful boy,
- And leave a metal grace,
- A graven joy.
- Thus would I slay --
- Ah, desperate device!
- The vital day
- That trembles in thine eyes,
- And let the red lips close
- Which sang so well,
- And drive away the rose
- To leave a shell.
- Then I myself,
- Rising austere and dumb,
- On the high shelf
- Of my half-lighted room,
- Would place the shining bust
- And wait alone,
- Until I was but dust,
- Buried unknown.
- Thus in my love
- For nations yet unborn,
- I would remove
- From our two lives the morn,
- And muse on loveliness
- In mine armchair,
- Content should Time confess
- How sweet you were.
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