W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.
The Angels, for the Nativitie of Our Lord
William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)R
We bring the best of news, be not dismay’d,
A Saviour there is born, more old than years,
Amidst the rolling heaven this earth who stay’d:
In a poor cottage inn’d, a virgin maid,
A weakling did him bear who all upbears;
There he in clothes is wrapped, in manger laid,
To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres.
Run, shepherds, run, and solemnise his birth;
This is that night, no day, grown great with bliss,
In which the power of Satan broken is;
In heaven be glory; peace unto the earth.
Thus singing through the air the angels swam,
And all the stars re-echoed the same.