Poems (Sill)/Christmas in California

CHRISTMAS IN CALIFORNIA.

AN this be Christmas—sweet as May, With drowsy sun, and dreamy air,And new grass pointing out the way For flowers to follow, everywhere?

Has Time grown sleepy at his post, And let the exiled Summer back,Or is it her regretful ghost, Or witchcraft of the almanac?

While wandering breaths of mignonette In at the open window come,I send my thoughts afar, and let Them paint your Christmas Day at home.

Glitter of ice, and glint of frost, And sparkles in the crusted snow;And hark! the dancing sleigh-bells, tost The faster as they fainter grow.

The creaking footsteps hurry past; The quick breath dims the frosty air;And down the crisp road slipping fast Their laughing loads the cutters bear.

Penciled against the cold white sky, Above the curling eaves of snow,The thin blue smoke lifts lingeringly, As loth to leave the mirth below.

For at the door a merry din Is heard, with stamp of feathery feet,And chattering girls come storming in, To toast them at the roaring grate.

And then from muff and pocket peer, And many a warm and scented nook, Mysterious little bundles queer, That, rustling, tempt the curious look.

Now broad upon the southern walls The mellowed sun's great smile appears,And tips the rough-ringed icicles With sparks, that grow to glittering tears.

Then, as the darkening day goes by, The wind gets gustier without,And leaden streaks are on the sky, And whirls of snow are all about.

Soon firelight shadows, merry crew, Along the darkling walls will leapAnd clap their hands, as if they knew A thousand things too good to keep.

Sweet eyes with home's contentment filled, As in the smouldering coals they peer,Haply some wondering pictures build Of how I keep my Christmas here.

Before me, on the wide, warm bay, A million azure ripples run;Round me the sprouting palm-shoots lay Their shining lances to the sun.

With glossy leaves that poise or swing, The callas their white cups unfold,And faintest chimes of odor ring From silver bells with tongues of gold.

A languor of deliciousness Fills all the sea-enchanted clime;And in the blue heavens meet, and kiss, The loitering clouds of summer-time.

This fragrance of the mountain balm From spicy Lebanon might be;Beneath such sunshine's amber calm Slumbered the waves of Galilee.

O wondrous gift, in goodness given, Each hour anew our eyes to greet, An earth so fair—so close to Heaven, 'T was trodden by the Master's feet.

And we—what bring we in return? Only these broken lives, and liftThem up to meet His pitying scorn, As some poor child its foolish gift:

As some poor child on Christmas Day Its broken toy in love might bring;You could not break its heart and say You cared not for the worthless thing?

Ah, word of trust, His child! That child Who brought to earth the life divine,Tells me the Father's pity mild Scorns not even such a gift as mine.

I am His creature, and His air I breathe, where'er my feet may stand;The angels' song rings everywhere, And all the earth is Holy Land.