No Stretch Today - Enjoy the Season

There is no poetry stretch today, just some encouragement to enjoy the poetry of the season. Here's some Thomas Hardy to get you in the mood.

The Oxen
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel,

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so’.

I also recommend a reading of John Milton's Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity. For all of you celebrating this Christmas season, best wishes for a joyous holiday.