Fifty Christmas Poems for Children: Verses From “The Cherry-Tree Carol”
Fifty Christmas Poems for Children, by Florence B. Hyett, [1923]
AS Joseph was a walking
He heard an angel sing:
"This night shall be born
Our heavenly king.
"He neither shall be born
In housen nor in hall,
Nor in the place of Paradise,
But in an ox's stall.
"He neither shall be clothed
In purple nor in pall,
But all in fair linen,
As were babies all.
"He neither shall be rocked
In silver nor in gold,
But in a wooden cradle,
That rocks on the mould.
"He neither shall be christened
In white wine nor red,
But with fair spring water,
With which we were christened."
Then Mary took her young son,
And set him on her knee:
"I pray thee now, dear child,
Tell how this world shall be."
"O I shall be as dead, mother,
As the stones in the wall;
O the stones in the street, mother,
Shall mourn for me all.
"And upon a Wednesday
My vow I will make,
And upon Good Friday
My death I will take.
"Upon Easter-day, mother,
My rising shall be;
O the sun and the moon
Shall uprise with me.
"The people shall rejoice,
And the birds they shall sing,
To see the uprising
Of the heavenly king."
--TRADITIONAL