Today’s Gifts:
A song: Handel’s (and Charles Jennens’) Messiah.
A booklist: A review of the booklist book I’ve already requested for Christmas.
A birthday: Gustave Flaubert, b.1821, Tracy Kidder, b.1925,
A poem: Christmas Greeting by Lewis Carroll.
Lady, dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
‘Tis at happy Christmas-tide.
We have heard the children say –
Gentle children, whom we love –
Long ago on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above,
Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again –
Echo still the joyful sound
“Peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide;
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide!
Thus, forgetting tricks and play
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, Glad New Year!