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• Christ’s Nativity
• Awake, glad heart! get up and sing! 
• It is the birth-day of thy King. 
• Awake! awake! 
• The Sun doth shake 
• Light from his locks, and all the way 
• Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day. 

• Awake, awake! hark how th’ wood rings; 
• Winds whisper, and the busy springs 
• A concert make; 
• Awake! awake! 
• Man is their high-priest, and should rise 
• To offer up the sacrifice. 

• I would I were some bird, or star, 
• Flutt’ring in woods, or lifted far 
• Above this inn 
• And road of sin! 
• Then either star or bird should be 
• Shining or singing still to thee. 

• I would I had in my best part 
• Fit rooms for thee! or that my heart 
• Were so clean as 
• Thy manger was! 
• But I am all filth, and obscene; 
• Yet, if thou wilt, thou canst make clean.

• Sweet Jesu! will then. Let no more 
• This leper haunt and soil thy door! 
• Cure him, ease him, 
• O release him! 
• And let once more, by mystic birth, 
• The Lord of life be born in earth.

• The Incarnation, and Passion
• Lord, when Thou didst Thyself undress, 
• Laying by Thy robes of glory, 
• To make us more, Thou wouldst be less, 
• And becam’st a woful story.

• To put on clouds instead of light, 
• And clothe the morning-star with dust, 
• Was a translation of such height 
• As, but in Thee, was ne’er express’d.

• Brave worms and earth! that thus could have 
• A God enclos’d within your cell, 
• Your Maker pent up in a grave, 
• Life lock’d in death, heav’n in a shell!

• Ah, my dear Lord ! what couldst thou spy 
• In this impure, rebellious clay, 
• That made Thee thus resolve to die 
• For those that kill Thee every day?

• O what strange wonders could Thee move 
• To slight Thy precious blood, and breath? 
• Sure it was love, my Lord! for love 
• Is only stronger far than death!

Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) was a Welsh poet, and considered one of the “metaphysical poets” of 17th-century England. By trade he worked as a physician, and he is best known for his religious poems – which he began writing after reading the works of a contemporary and fellow-English poet, George Herbert. Vaughan’s style was marked by an ingenious use of monosyllables in his verse, alliteration and, like most of the metaphysical poets of the time, a compelling use of elaborate imagery. Merry Christmas.