Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
'Now they are all on their knees,'
An elder said as we sat in flock
By the embers in the hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwell in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancey 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.
Thomas Hardy
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