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A Christmas Carol Sung To the King In the Presence At Whitehall

by Robert Herrick, 1647

Chor. 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 everything
      Awake! the while the active finger
      Runs division with the singer.

FROM THE FLOURISH THEY CAME TO THE SONG.

    1. Dark and dull night, fly hence away
      And give the honour to this day
      That sees December turn’d to May.

    2. If we may ask the reason, say
      The why and wherefore all things here
      Seem like the spring-time of the year.

    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?

    4. Come and see
      The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
      ’Tis He is born, whose quick’ning birth
      Gives life and lustre, public mirth,
      To heaven and the under-earth.

Chor. We see Him come, and know Him ours,
      Who, with His sunshine and His showers,
      Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

    1. The darling of the world is come,
      And fit it is we find a room
      To welcome Him.
    2. The nobler part
      Of all the house here is the heart,

Chor. Which we will give Him; and bequeath
      This holly and this ivy wreath,
      To do Him honour; who’s our King,
      And Lord of all this revelling.

Published in Noble Numbers
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