[Editor: This poem by Joseph Furphy was published in The Poems of Joseph Furphy (1916).]
A Christmas Hymn.
The Seraph-song of morning’s prime
That hail’d Messiah’s birth,
The charter of a coming time
When Love shall rule the earth,
Rings from yon far Judaean hill —
Source:
K. B. [Kate Baker] (editor), The Poems of Joseph Furphy, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Co., 1916, page 7
Editor’s notes:
The poem “A Christmas Hymn” is listed by itself on the Contents page, but it may be that it is meant to flow into the following poem, “Glory to God; to Men Good Will!”. The first poem appears incomplete, ending with an extended dash (“—”), which implies that there is more to come. The final line “Rings from yon far Judaean hill —” rhymes with the title of the next poem in the book, “Glory to God; to Men Good Will!” (both poems were published on the same page).
Seraph = an angel (one of the Seraphim), regarded as a highly-ranked order of angel (the Seraphim are mentioned in the Bible, in Isaiah 6: “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne . . . Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings”)
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