WHEN rosemary, and bays, the poets' crown,
Are bawled, in frequent cries, through all the town;
Then judge the festival of Christmas near,-
Christmas, the joyous period of the year.
Now with bright holly all your temples strew,
With laurel green, and sacred mistletoe;
Now, heaven-born Charity! thy blessings shed;
Bid meagre Want uprear her sickly head;

The Mistletoe.

Bid shivering limbs be warm; let Plenty's bowl
In humble roofs make glad the needy soul!
See, see! the heaven-born maid her blessings shed;
Lo! meagre Want uprears her sickly head;
Clothed are the naked, and the needy glad,

While selfish Avarice alone is sad.

The Mistletoe.

(BARRY CORNWALL.)

WHEN winter nights grow long,

And winds without blow cold,

We sit in a ring round the warm wood fire,
And listen to stories old!

And we try to look grave (as maids should be),

When the men bring in boughs of the laurel-tree.
O, the laurel, the evergreen tree!

The poets have laurels, and why not we?

How pleasant, when night falls down,

And hides the wintry sun,

To see them come in to the blazing fire,
And know that their work is done;
Whilst many bring in, with a laugh or rhyme,
Green branches of holly for Christmas time.
O, the holly, the bright green holly!

It tells (like a tongue) that the times are jolly!

Sometimes (in our grave house

Observe, this happeneth not;)

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But at times the evergreen laurel boughs,

And the holly are all forgot,

And then-what then? why, the men laugh low,
And hang up a branch of-the mistletoe!

Oh, brave is the laurel! and brave is the holly.
But the mistletoe banisheth melancholy!
Ah, nobody knows, nor ever shall know,
What is done under the mistletoe.

The Christmas Holly.

(ELIZA COOK.)

THE holly! the holly! oh, twine it with bay—
Come give the holly a song;

For it helps to drive stern winter away,

With his garment so sombre and long;

It peeps through the trees with its berries of red,
And its leaves of burnished green,

When the flowers and fruits have long been dead,

And not even the daisy is seen.

Then sing to the holly, the Christmas holly,

That hangs over peasant and king;

While we laugh and carouse 'neath its glittering boughs,

To the Christmas holly we'll sing.

The gale may whistle, the frost may come

To fetter the gurgling rill;

The woods may be bare, and warblers dumb,

But holly is beautiful still.

In the revel and light of princely halls

The bright holly branch is found;

The Holly Berry..

And its shadow falls on the lowliest walls,
While the brimming horn goes round.
Then drink to the holly, &c.

The ivy lives long, but its home must be
Where graves and ruins are spread;
There's beauty about the cypress tree,
But it flourishes near the dead;
The laurel the warrior's brow may wreathe,
But it tells of tears and blood;
I sing the holly, and who can breathe
Aught of that that is not good?

Then sing to the holly, &c.

The Holly Berry.

(THOMAS MILLER.)

GONE are the summer hours,

The birds have left their bowers;
While the holly true retains his hue,
Nor changes like the flowers.
On his arméd leaf reposes
The berries tinged like roses;
For he's ever seen in red or green,
While grim old Winter dozes.

Then drink to the holly berry,
With hey down, hey down derry;
The mistletoe we'll pledge also,

And at Christmas all be merry.

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Above all cold affections,

Like pleasant recollections,

The ivy grows, and a deep veil throws
O'er all Time's imperfections;

The mould'ring column screening,
The naked gateway greening,

While the falling shrine it doth entwine

Like a heart that's homeward leaning.
Then drink, &c.

We read in ancient story,

How the Druids in their glory

Marched forth of old, with hooks of gold,

To forests dim and hoary;

The giant oak ascended,

Then from its branches rended

The mistletoe, long long ago,

By maidens fair attended.

Then drink, &c.

Each thorpe and grange surrounding,
The waits to music bounding,

Aroused the cook, that her fire might smoke

Ere the early cock was sounding.

For all the land was merry,

And rang with "Hey down derry,"
While in castle hall, and cottage small,

There glittered the holly berry.
Then drink, &c.