December 23: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Holy Night
We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem;
The dumb kine fro their fodder turning them,
     Softened their horned faces
     To almost human gazes
     Toward the newly Born:
The simple shepherds from the star-lit brooks
     Brought visionary looks,
As yet in their astonied hearing rung
     The strange sweet angel-tongue:
The magi of the East, in sandals worn,
     Knelt reverent, sweeping round,
     With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground,
     The incense, myrrh, and gold
These baby hands were impotent to hold:
So let all earthlies and celestials wait
     Upon thy royal state
     Sleep, sleep, my kingly One!
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet in the early 1800s. You probably know her Sonnet 43: "How Do I Love Thee?" She led an interesting life! And had a well-documented courtship (574 letters!) with Robert Browning. Much of her writing conveyed Christian beliefs through a variety of literary forms. Read more about her here!