2. For there the babe is born in joy 3. And if the babe is born a boy, 4. She binds strong thorns around his head, She cuts his heart out at his side, 5. He rfingers number every nerve She lives upon his shrieks and cries, 6. Till he becomes a bleeding youth, And she becomes a virgin bright; Then he rends up his manacles And binds her down for his delight. 7. He plants himself in all her nerves 8. An aged shadow soon he fades, Wandering round an earthly cot, Full filled all with gems and gold Which he by industry had got. 9. And these are the gems of the human soul, The rubies and pearls of a lovesick eye, The countless gold of the aching heart, The martyr's groan and the lover's sigh. 10. They are his meat, they are his drink; For ever open is his door. 11. His grief is their eternal joy, They make the roofs and walls to ring; Till from the fire upon the hearth A little female babe doth spring. 12. And she is all of solid fire And gems and gold, that none his hand Dares stretch to touch her baby form Or wrap her in his swaddling band. 13. But she comes to the man she loves, 14. He wanders weeping far away, Until some other take him in; 15. And to allay his freezing age, The poor man takes her in his arms; The cottage fades. before his sight, The garden and its lovely charms. 16. The guests are scattered through the land; The senses roll themselves in fear, 17. The stars, sun, moon, all shrink away, 18. The honey of her infant lips, The bread and wine of her sweet smile, The wild game of her roving eye, Do him to infancy beguile. 19. For as he eats and drinks he grows 20. Like the wild stag she flees away; Her fear plants many a thicket wild, While he pursues her night and day, By various arts of love beguiled. 21. By various arts of love and hate, With labyrinths of wayward love, 22. Till he becomes a wayward babe, The sun and stars are nearer rolled; 23. The trees bring forth sweet ecstacy And many a pleasant shepherd's home. 24. But when they find the frowning babe, Terror strikes through the region wide: They cry-the babe-the babe is born!" And flee away on every side. 25. For who dare touch the frowning form, His arm is withered to its root: Bears, lions, wolves, all howling flee, And every tree doth shed its fruit. 26. And none can touch that frowning form Except it be a woman old; She nails it down upon the rock, And all is done as I have told. WILLIAM BOND. I WONDER Whether the girls are mad, He went to church on a May morning, He went not out to the field nor fold, He went not out to the village nor town, But he came home in a black black cloud, And took to his bed, and there lay down. And an angel of Providence at his feet, And an angel of Providence at his head, And in the midst a black black cloud, And in the midst the sick man on his bed. And on his right hand was Mary Green, 'O William, if thou dost another love, Dost another love better than poor Mary, Go and take that other to be thy wife, And Mary Green shall her servant be.' 'Yes, Mary, I do another love, Another I love far better than thee, And another I will have for my wife: Then what have I to do with thee? |