Christmas Poems

Pictured: our Christmas Reading Collection

This collection of traditional, festive Christmas poems will spark the holiday spirit. Share them as you hang the stockings, to introduce a delicious feast, or as you settle in front of the tree on Christmas Eve.

Minstrels
William Wordsworth

The minstrels played their Christmas tune
Tonight beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,
That overpowered their natural green. 

Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings:
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings;
So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand. 

And who but listened? — till was paid
Respect to every inmate’s claim,
The greeting given, the music played
In honour of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And ‘Merry Christmas’ wished to all.

French Noel William Morris

Masters, in this Hall,
Hear ye news to-day
Brought from over sea,
And ever I you pray. 

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell sing we clear
Holpen are all folk on earth, Born is God’s Son so dear: 
Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell sing we loud!
God to-day hath poor folk rais’d, And cast down the proud.

Going over the hills,
Through the milk-white snow,
Hear I ewes bleat
While the wind did blow. 

Shepherds many an one
Sat among the sheep,
No man spake more word
Than they had been asleep. 

Quoth I ‘Fellows mine,
Why this guise sit ye?
Making but dull cheer,
Shepherds though ye be? 

‘Shepherds should of right
Leap and dance and sing;
Thus to see ye sit
Is a right strange thing.’ 

Quoth these fellows then,
‘To Bethlem town we go,
To see a mighty Lord
Lie in a manger low.’ 

‘How name ye this Lord,
Shepherds?’ then said I.
‘Very God,’ they said,
Come from Heaven high.’ 

Then to Bethlem town
We went two and two
And in a sorry place
Heard the oxen low.

Therin did we see
A sweet and goodly May
And a fair old man;
Upon the straw She lay.

And a little Child
On Her arm had She;
‘Wot ye Who this is?’
Said the hinds to me.

Ox and ass Him know,
Kneeling on their knee:
Wondrous joy had I
This little Babe to see.

This is Christ the Lord
Master, be ye glad!
Christmas is come in,
And no folk should be sad. 

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell sing we clear
Holpen are all folk on earth, Born is God’s Son so dear:
Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell sing we loud!
God to-day hath poor folk rais’d, And cast down the proud. 

I Sing of a Maiden
Traditional Christmas Poem

I sing of a maiden
That is makèless;
King of all kings
The her son she ches. 

He came all so still
Where his mother was,
As dew in April
That falleth on the grass. 

He came all so still
To his mother’s bowr,
As dew in April
That falleth on the flower. 

He came all so still
Where his mother lay,
As dew in April
That falleth on the spray. 

Mother and maiden
Was never none but she;
Well may such a lady
Godès mother be.

The Mother of God W. B. Yeats

The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare
Through the hollow of an ear;
Wings beating about the room;
The terror of all terrors that I bore
The Heavens in my womb. 

Had I not found content among the shows
Every common woman knows,
Chimney corner, garden walk,
Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes
And gather all the talk? 

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart’s blood stop
Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?

Peace Henry Vaughan

My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a wingèd sentry
All skilful in the wars.
There, above noise and danger,
Sweet peace sits crown’d with smiles,
And one born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files.
He is thy gracious friend
And (O my soul, awake!)
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake.
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of peace,
The rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges;
For none can thee secure
But one, who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.