Christmas Hymn
Sing, Christmas bells!Say to the earth this is the mornWhereon our Saviour-King is born;Sing to all men,--the bond, the free,The rich, the poor, the high, the low,The little child that sports in glee,The aged folk that tottering go,--Proclaim the mornThat Christ is born,That saveth them and saveth me!
Sing, angel host!Sing of the star that God has placedAbove the manger in the east;Sing of the glories of the night,The virgin's sweet humility,The Babe with kingly robes bedight,Sing to all men where'er they beThis Christmas morn;For Christ is born,That saveth them and saveth me!
Sing, sons of earth!O ransomed seed of Adam, sing!God liveth, and we have a king!The curse is gone, the bond are free,--By Bethlehem's star that brightly beamed,By all the heavenly signs that be,We know that Israel is redeemed;That on this mornThe Christ is bornThat saveth you and saveth me!
Sing, O my heart!Sing thou in rapture this dear mornWhereon the blessed Prince is born!And as thy songs shall be of love,So let my deeds be charity,--By the dear Lord that reigns above,By Him that died upon the tree,By this fair mornWhereon is bornThe Christ that saveth all and me!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- manger n.
- A trough or open box in which fodder is placed for horses or cattle to eat. [F. mangeoire, fr. manger to eat, fr. L. manducare, fr. mandere to chew. Cf. Mandible, Manducate.]
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- bedight v. t.
- To bedeck; to array or equip; to adorn.
- beamed a.
- Furnished with beams, as the head of a stag.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Christmas Hymn is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Little Book of Western Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #9606; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Christmas Hymn, in A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9606, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-western-verse/christmas-hymn.html, id L24660.
Form and metre
Christmas Hymn is 40 lines in 4 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -AABCBCAAB bells · mornA · bornA · freeB · lowC · gleeB · goC · mornA · bornA · meB
- 2 ---A-ABCCB host · placed · east · nightA · humility · bedightA · beB · mornC · bornC · meB
- 3 -AABCBCDDB earth · singA · kingA · freeB · beamedC · beB · redeemedC · mornD · bornD · meB
- 4 -AAB-BCAAC heart · mornA · bornA · loveB · charity · aboveB · treeC · mornA · bornA · meC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sing, Christmas bells! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Say to the earth this is the morn | 8 | ········ |
| Whereon our Saviour-King is born; | 8 | ˘///˘··· |
| Sing to all men,--the bond, the free, | 8 | ········ |
| The rich, the poor, the high, the low, | 8 | ········ |
| The little child that sports in glee, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The aged folk that tottering go,-- | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Proclaim the morn | 4 | ˘/·· |
| That Christ is born, | 4 | ···· |
| That saveth them and saveth me! | 8 | ········ |
| Sing, angel host! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sing of the star that God has placed | 8 | ········ |
| Above the manger in the east; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sing of the glories of the night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The virgin's sweet humility, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| The Babe with kingly robes bedight, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Sing to all men where'er they be | 9 | ····˘˘/·· |
| This Christmas morn; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| For Christ is born, | 4 | ···· |
| That saveth them and saveth me! | 8 | ········ |
| Sing, sons of earth! | 4 | ···· |
| O ransomed seed of Adam, sing! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| God liveth, and we have a king! | 8 | ········ |
| The curse is gone, the bond are free,-- | 8 | ········ |
| By Bethlehem's star that brightly beamed, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| By all the heavenly signs that be, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We know that Israel is redeemed; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| That on this morn | 4 | ···· |
| The Christ is born | 4 | ···· |
| That saveth you and saveth me! | 8 | ········ |
| Sing, O my heart! | 4 | ···· |
| Sing thou in rapture this dear morn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whereon the blessed Prince is born! | 7 | ˘/····· |
| And as thy songs shall be of love, | 8 | ········ |
| So let my deeds be charity,-- | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| By the dear Lord that reigns above, | 8 | ········ |
| By Him that died upon the tree, | 8 | ········ |
| By this fair morn | 4 | ···· |
| Whereon is born | 4 | ˘/·· |
| The Christ that saveth all and me! | 8 | ········ |
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.