New-Year's Eve - James Russell Lowell

This is the midnight of the century,

Lullaby - Louisa May Alcott

Now the day is done,
Now the shepherd sun
Drives his white flocks from the sky;
Now the flowers rest
On their mother's breast,
Hushed by her low lullaby.

Anniversaries - Aldous Huxley

Once more the windless days are here,
Quiet of autumn, when the year
Halts and looks backward and draws breath
Before it plunges into death.

Love And Age - Thomas Love Peacock

I play’d with you ’mid cowslips blowing,
When I was six and you were four;
When garlands weaving, flower-balls throwing,
Were pleasures soon to please no more.
Through groves and meads, o’er grass and heather,
With little playmates, to and fro,
We wander’d hand in hand together;
But that was sixty years ago.

The Nativity - Henry Vaughan

Peace? and to all the world? sure, One
And He the Prince of Peace, hath none.

My Little Doll - Charles Kingsley

I once had a sweet little doll, dears,
The prettiest doll in the world;

Journey Of The Magi - T.S. Eliot

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'

[little tree] - ee cummings

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

Christmas Bells - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

The Garden Year - Sara Coleridge

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

I Saw Three Ships - Anonymous

I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day, on Christmas day;
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day in the morning.

The House Of Christmas - G. K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

When Christmas Comes - Virna Sheard

For thee, my small one--trinkets and new toys,
The wine of life and all its keenest joys,
When Christmas comes.
For me, the broken playthings of the past
That in my folded hands I still hold fast,
When Christmas comes.

Love Came Down at Christmas - Christina Georgina Rossetti

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.

The Oxen - Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

Christmas: 1915 - Percy MacKaye

Now is the midnight of the nations:

Star Of My Heart - Vachel Lindsay

Star of my heart, I follow from afar.
Sweet Love on high, lead on where shepherds are,
Where Time is not, and only dreamers are.

Home For Christmas — Old Style - Cicely Fox Smith

"I'm goin' to get 'er 'ome
For Christmas," said the skipper
O' the clipper
Flyin' Foam . . .

A Visit from St. Nicholas - Clement Clark Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

Christmas Gifts - Carolyn Wells

Ten Christmas presents standing in a line;
Robert took the bicycle, then there were nine.

Christmas In The Olden Time - Sir Walter Scott

On Christmas-eve the bells were rung;
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dressed with holly green;
Forth to the wood did merry men go,
To gather in the mistletoe.

At Christmas - Edgar A. Guest

A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than be's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime.

The Christmas Homes of England - Caroline Hayward

The Christmas homes of England!
How far-famed and how dear;
In bright array they ever stand,
That glad day of the year;
When gathered round the hearth-stone,
The loved ones joyful meet,
With one accord from far and near,
The circle glad to greet.

Christmas At Sea - Robert Louis Stevenson

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

Christmas Bells - Hattie Howard

Ring out, O bells, in joyful chime!
   Again we hail the Christmas time;
In melting, mellow atmosphere,
   The crown and glory of the year.

John Greenleaf Whittier - After Election

THE day's sharp strife is ended now,
Our work is done, God knoweth how!
As on the thronged, unrestful town
The patience of the moon looks down,
I wait to hear, beside the wire,
The voices of its tongues of fire.

Sunday - Thomas Gent

Come, thou blessed day of rest!

In Memoriam, July 19, 1914 - Anna Akhmatova

We aged a hundred years and this descended
In just one hour, as at a stroke.
The summer had been brief and now was ended;
The body of the ploughed plains lay in smoke.

Song: A youth for Jane with ardour sighed... - Amelia Opie

A youth for Jane with ardour sighed,
    The maid with sparkling eye;
But to his vows she still replied,
    ‘I’ll hear you by and by.’