The New-Year's Gift: Or, Circumcision's Song

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Title:     The New-Year's Gift: Or, Circumcision's Song
Author: (Poet) Robert Herrick [More Titles by Herrick]

[Sung To The King In The Presence At Whitehall]

1. Prepare for songs; He's come, He's come;
And be it sin here to be dumb,
And not with lutes to fill the room.

2. Cast holy water all about,
And have a care no fire goes out,
But 'cense the porch and place throughout.

3. The altars all on fire be;
The storax fries; and ye may see
How heart and hand do all agree
To make things sweet. _Chor._ Yet all less sweet than He.

4. Bring Him along, most pious priest,
And tell us then, whenas thou seest
His gently-gliding, dove-like eyes,
And hear'st His whimpering and His cries;
How can'st thou this Babe circumcise?

5. Ye must not be more pitiful than wise;
For, now unless ye see Him bleed,
Which makes the bapti'm, 'tis decreed
The birth is fruitless. _Chor._ Then the work God speed.

1. Touch gently, gently touch; and here
Spring tulips up through all the year;
And from His sacred blood, here shed,
May roses grow to crown His own dear head.

_Chor._ Back, back again; each thing is done
With zeal alike, as 'twas begun;
Now singing, homeward let us carry
The Babe unto His mother Mary;
And when we have the Child commended
To her warm bosom, then our rites are ended.

_Composed by M. Henry Lawes._

[The end]
(Poet) Robert Herrick's poem: New-Year's Gift: Or, Circumcision's Song. Sung To The King In The Presence At Whitehall

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