A Christmas Night
Christ for a dream was given from the deadTo walk one Christmas night on earth again,Among the snow, among the Christmas bells.He heard the hymns that are his praise: Noël,And Christ is Born, and Babe of Bethlehem.He saw the travelling crowds happy for home,The gathering and the welcome, and the setFeast and the gifts, because he once was born,Because he once was steward of a word.And so he thought, “The spirit has been kind;So well the peoples might have fallen from me,My way of life being difficult and spare.It is beautiful that a dream in GalileeShould prosper so. They crucified me once,And now my name is spoken through the world,And bells are rung for me and candles burnt.They might have crucified my dream who usedMy body ill; they might have spat on meAlways as in one hour on Golgotha.” ...And the snow fell, and the last bell was still,And the poor Christ again was with the dead.
Words in this poem
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- bethlehem n.
- A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam. [Heb. b house of food; b house + lekhem food, lakham to eat. Formerly the name of a hospital for the insane, in London, which had been the priory of St. Mary of ]
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- spat n.
- A young oyster or other bivalve mollusk, both before and after it first becomes adherent, or such young, collectively. [From the root of spit; hence, literally, that which is ejected.]
- golgotha n.
- Calvary. See the Note under Calvary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Christmas Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, A Christmas Night, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/a-christmas-night.html, id L23024.
Form and metre
A Christmas Night is 21 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A---------B-B----B--A deadA · again · bells · noël · bethlehem · home · set · born · word · kind · meB · spare · galileeB · once · world · burnt · used · meB · golgotha · still · deadA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Christ for a dream was given from the dead | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To walk one Christmas night on earth again, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Among the snow, among the Christmas bells. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| He heard the hymns that are his praise: Noël, | 9 | ········· |
| And Christ is Born, and Babe of Bethlehem. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| He saw the travelling crowds happy for home, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| The gathering and the welcome, and the set | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Feast and the gifts, because he once was born, | 10 | ·········· |
| Because he once was steward of a word. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And so he thought, “The spirit has been kind; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So well the peoples might have fallen from me, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| My way of life being difficult and spare. | 10 | ····//˘˘·· |
| It is beautiful that a dream in Galilee | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| Should prosper so. They crucified me once, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And now my name is spoken through the world, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And bells are rung for me and candles burnt. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They might have crucified my dream who used | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| My body ill; they might have spat on me | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Always as in one hour on Golgotha.” ... | 11 | /˘···/˘·/˘˘ |
| And the snow fell, and the last bell was still, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the poor Christ again was with the dead. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.