Before the paling of the stars,
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.
Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.
Jesus on his mother’s breast
In the stable cold,
Spotless lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph laudatory*,
With saint and angel, ox and ass,
To hail the King of Glory.
--Christina Rosetti, 1912
In the stable cold,
Spotless lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph laudatory*,
With saint and angel, ox and ass,
To hail the King of Glory.
--Christina Rosetti, 1912
*In the original poem, "bent and hoary", with the idea that Joseph was older, and this was his second marriage, coming out of the extra-Biblical idea that Mary was always a Virgin and never had biological children. Christians who hold this view, namely Roman Catholics and some Anglicans, interpret New Testament references of Jesus' brothers and sisters as being half-sisters from a possible 1st marriage of Joseph. There is no actual Biblical data to support this. Rosetti was a "High Church Anglican"