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A Christmas Carol, Sung To The King In The Presence At White-Hall

By Robert Herrick

Topics: classic

Chorus. What sweeter music can we bring, Than a Carol, for to sing The Birth of this our heavenly King? Awake the Voice! Awake the String! Heart, Ear, and Eye, and every thing Awake! the while the active Finger Runs division with the Singer. [From the Flourish they came to the Song]. Voice 1: Dark and dull night, fly hence away, And give the honor to this Day, That sees December turn'd to May. Voice 2: If we may ask the reason, say: The why, and wherefore all things here Seem like the Spring-time fo the year? Voice 3: Why does the chilling Winter's morn Smile, like a field beset with corn? Or smell, like to a mead new-shorn, Thus, on the sudden? Voice 4: Come and see The cause, why things thus fragrant be: 'Tis He is born, whose quick'ning Birth Gives life and luster, public mirth, To Heaven and the under-Earth. Chorus: We see Him come, and know Him ours, Who, with His Sun-shine, and His Showers, Turns all the patient ground to flowers. Voice 1: The Darling of the World is come, And fit it is, we find a room To welcome Him. Voice 2: The nobler part Of all the house here, is the Heart, Chorus: Which we will give Him; and bequeath This Holly and this Ivy Wreath, To do Him honor; who's our King, And Lord of all this Reveling.

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Author:Robert Herrick

"Chorus...." by Robert Herrick

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Robert Herrick

About Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English Cavalier poet whose "Hesperides" (1648) contains over 1,200 poems. His carpe diem verse "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" ("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may") and lyric poems celebrate love, beauty, and the passing of time.

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