Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

916 The Birds of Bethlehem

I HEARD the bells of Bethlehem ring—

Their voice was sweeter than the priests’;

I heard the birds of Bethlehem sing

Unbidden in the churchly feasts.

They clung and sung on the swinging chain

High in the dim and incensed air;

The priests, with repetitions vain,

Chanted a never-ending prayer.

So bell and bird and priest I heard,

But voice of bird was most to me;

It had no ritual, no word,

And yet it sounded true and free.

I thought Child Jesus, were he there,

Would like the singing birds the best,

And clutch his little hands in air

And smile upon his mother’s breast.
BETHLEHEM, Holy Week, 1896.