Christmas Song of the Old Children + 

Well for youth to seek the strong, + 

Beautiful, and brave! + 

We, the old, who walk along + 

Gently to the grave, + 

Only pay our court to thee, + 

Child of all Eternity! + 

We are old who once were young, + 

And we grow more old; + 

Songs we are that have been sung, + 

Tales that have been told; + 

Yellow leaves, wind-blown to thee, + 

Childhood of Eternity! + 

If we come too sudden near, + 

Lo, Earth’s infant cries, + 

For our faces wan and drear + 

Have such withered eyes! + 

Thou, Heaven’s child, turn’st not away + 

From the wrinkled ones who pray! + 

Smile upon us with thy mouth + 

And thine eyes of grace; + 

On our cold north breathe thy south. + 

Thaw the frozen face: + 

Childhood all from thee doth flow⁠— + 

Melt to song our age’s snow. + 

Gray-haired children come in crowds, + 

Thee, their Hope, to greet: + 

Is it swaddling clothes or shrouds + 

Hampering so our feet? + 

Eldest child, the shadows gloom: + 

Take the aged children home. + 

We have had enough of play, + 

And the wood grows drear; + 

Many who at break of day + 

Companied us here⁠— + 

They have vanished out of sight, + 

Gone and met the coming light! + 

Fair is this out-world of thine, + 

But its nights are cold; + 

And the sun that makes it fine + 

Makes us soon so old! + 

Long its shadows grow and dim⁠— + 

Father, take us back with him! + 