Aloha mai kākou,
I hope this season of Christmas brings you joy amidst the troubles of the world.
Poetry can help.
Here is one of my favorite Christmas poems by the English novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy.
What are your favorite poems at Christmas?
| The Oxen |
| by Thomas Hardy |
| The Oxen “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. |
| This poem was first published in The Times of London on Christmas Eve, 1915. As the Great War is raging in Europe, Hardy offers a glimpse of a happier time. As we read, and consider our own world, would we love to go with him through the English countryside to see those oxen kneel? |