Poems

<h4><SPAN name="A_CHRISTMAS_SONG_FOR_THREE_GUILDS" id="A_CHRISTMAS_SONG_FOR_THREE_GUILDS"></SPAN>A CHRISTMAS SONG FOR THREE GUILDS</h4> <p><span class="font">TO BE SUNG A LONG TIME AGO&mdash;OR HENCE</span></p> <p><i>THE CARPENTERS</i></p> <p>St. Joseph to the Carpenters said on a Christmas Day:<br/> "The master shall have patience and the prentice shall obey;<br/> And your word unto your women shall be nowise hard or wild:<br/> For the sake of me, your master, who have worshipped Wife and Child.<br/> But softly you shall frame the fence, and softly carve the door,<br/> And softly plane the table&mdash;as to spread it for the poor,<br/> And all your thoughts be soft and white as the wood of the white tree.<br/> But if they tear the Charter, Jet the tocsin speak for me!<br/> Let the wooden sign above your shop be prouder to be scarred<br/> Than the lion-shield of Lancelot that hung at Joyous Garde."<br/> <br/> <i>THE SHOEMAKERS</i><br/> <br/> St. Crispin to the shoemakers said on a Christmastide:<br/> "Who fashions at another's feet will get no good of pride.<br/> They were bleeding on the Mountain, the feet that brought good news,<br/> The latchet of whose shoes we were not worthy to unloose.<br/> See that your feet offend not, nor lightly lift your head,<br/> Tread softly on the sunlit roads the bright dust of the dead.<br/> Let your own feet be shod with peace; be lowly all your lives.<br/> But if they touch the Charter, ye shall nail it with your knives.<br/> And the bill-blades of the commons drive in all as dense array<br/> As once a crash of arrows came, upon St. Crispin's Day."<br/> <br/> <i>THE PAINTERS</i><br/> <br/> St. Luke unto the painters on Christmas Day he said:<br/> "See that the robes are white you dare to dip in gold and red;<br/> For only gold the kings can give, and only blood the saints;<br/> And his high task grows perilous that mixes them in paints.<br/> Keep you the ancient order; follow the men that knew<br/> The labyrinth of black and whits, the maze of green and blue;<br/> Paint mighty things, paint paltry things, paint silly things or sweet.<br/> But if men break the Charter, you may slay them in the street.<br/> And if you paint one post for them, then ... but you know it well,<br/> You paint a harlot's face to drag all heroes down to hell."<br/> <br/> <i>ALL TOGETHER</i><br/> <br/> Almighty God to all mankind on Christmas Day said He:<br/> "I rent you from the old red hills and, rending, made you free.<br/> There was charter, there was challenge; in a blast of breath I gave;<br/> You can be all things other; you cannot be a slave.<br/> You shall be tired and tolerant of fancies as they fade,<br/> But if men doubt the Charter, ye shall call on the Crusade&mdash;<br/> Trumpet and torch and catapult, cannon and bow and blade,<br/> Because it was My challenge to all the things I made."<br/> <br/><br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />