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Christmas Memories.

Thou 'rt back again to bless us!
 Within our hearts' recesses
A thousand sacred memories have slept since last we met.
Dear visions of the old time, and shadows of the old clime,
And fleeting rays of happiness from suns that long have set.

As through the years we're peering, thy visions so endearing
Comes back in all the colouring of childhood's roseate glow;
We see thee bluff and jolly, crowned with ivy and with holly,
 With beard of sparkling icicles and mantle caped with snow.

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We hear the deep bell booming where the ancient tower is looming
In the distance by the death-yard, where the tired ones find rest—
"Rejoice, rejoice, ye people," rings from belfry and from steeple;
  "Rejoice," reply the Seraphs as they sing among the blest.

An angel yestereven came as harbinger from Heaven,
  To spread the cheerful tidings of the Peaceful Prince's birth;
And loud hosannas pealing, from the star bespangled ceiling,
  Of the bright etherial canopy, were trumpeted o'er earth.

What welcomings and greetings! What banquetings and meetings!
  A social chain of loving hearts is linked around the board.
Ah! now 'tis reft and broken, of each link there's scarce a token;
  But dreams recall the treasure still, and mem'ry guards the hoard.

Old Father Christmas, never can time or distance sever
  The bonds of true affection which connect us still with thee;
Some bosoms may wax colder as the world is growing older,
  But ever in this breast of mine thy name shall honour'd be.

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Dear time of fond devotion! in the Isles beyond the Ocean,
  When childhood's days were pure and white as snowdrops by a stream,
Thy very name was golden, and now thy mem'ries olden
  Steal round us in the new lands, and we smile and sigh; and dream.