What Sweeter Music?

What sweeter music can we bring

Than a carol, for to sing

The birth of this our heav’nly King?

Awake the voice! Awake the string!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,

And give the honour to this day

That sees December turn to May.

Why does the chilling winter’s morn

Smile, like a field beset with corn?

Or smell like a meadow newly shorn

Thus on the sudden? Come and see

The cause, why things thus fragrant be:

’Tis he is born, whose quick’ning birth

Gives life and lustre, public mirth,

To heaven and the underearth.

We see him come, and know him ours,

Who, with his sunshine and his show’rs,

Turns all the patient ground to flow’rs.

The darling of the world is come,

And fit it is, we find a room

To welcome him. The nobler part

Of all the house here, is the heart,

Which we will give him; and bequeath

This holly, and this ivy wreath,

To do him honour; who’s our King,

And Lord of all this revelling.