With cakes and ale, and antic ring Well tiptoed to the tabor string, And many a buss below the holly, And flout at sable melancholy– So, with a rouse, went Christmassing! What! are no latter waits to sing? No clog to blaze? No wit to wing? Are catches gone, and dimpled Dolly, With cakes and […]

Acold it is and middle night: The moon looks down the snow, As if an angel, clad in white, Carried her lanthorn so That, going forth the streets of light, She made an earthward glow. A drift enfolds the chapel eaves Like downy coverlet; And, garnered into whited sheaves, The graves are harvest-set Waiting the […]

An ingle-blaze and a steaming jug; A lamp and a lazy book; And, deep in a doubled, downy rug Your feet to the warmest nook. And wherever the eye may crook, A print or a tumbled tome– For the kettle sings on the blackened hook, And hey! for the sweets of home! What though the […]

Now farewell, good Christmas, Adieu and adieu, I needs now must leave thee, And look for a new; For till thou returnest, I linger in pain, And I care not how quickly Thou comest again. But ere thou departest, I purpose to see What merry good pastime This day will show me; For a king […]

The old year now away is fled, The new year it is entered, Then let us now our sins down-tread And joyfully all appear. Let’s merry be this holiday, And let us now both sport and play, Hang sorrow, let’s cast care away: God send you a happy New Year! For Christ’s circumcision this day […]

The young men and maids on New-Year’s day, Their loves they will present With many a gift both fine and gay, Which gives them true content: And though the gift be great or small, Yet this is the custom still, Expressing their loves in ribbons and gloves, It being their kind good-will. Young bachelors will […]