Friday 24 December 2021

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends.




 The Oxen

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.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,

“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

8 comments:

  1. I love this poem - even more after living for 6 years in Dorset! Happy Christmas to you and yours ❤️😉🌲

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    1. We moved here from Dorset, at the end of the 80s. Carmarthenshire (the same house) until this year. Powys is lovely, but I'd love to get in the car and pop down to Thomas Hardy's Cottage and Stinsford, or visit Avebury again. Won't be happening, but I have the memories.

      Have a Happy Christmas Angela.

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  2. Hi from Wendy & Tom - wishing you a really lovely and happy Christmas with your family. We also wish you a happy New Year in your beautiful home and that your husband's health improves.
    Wendy (Wales)

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  3. How wonderful to read that poem again. Those very rememberings of Christmas past are the bright, sparkling bow on our Christmas present. Merry Christmas.

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  4. Merry Christmas. I love that poem :)

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  5. Merry Christmas from California

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  6. A happy and gentle Christmas to you and yours xx

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  7. Merry Christmas to you as well, Bovey. ~Andrea xoxo

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