Christmas Eve

by Frances Frost

The woods were still and the snow was deep,

But there was no creature who could sleep.

The fox and the vixen ran together

Silently through the starry weather,

The buck and the doe and the fawn came drifting

Into the clearing. The rabbit, lifting

His ears, shook white from the twigs he brushed;

The chattering squirrel for once was hushed

As he sat with his paws against his breast,

And the bobcat crouched on the mountain crest.

Safe in the fold the silver sheep

Told the young lambs not to leap.

In the shadowy stable the horses stood

Hearing the quietness in the wood,

And the cattle sighed in the fragrant barn,

Waiting the instant of the morn.

The stars stood at midnight, and tame or wild,

All creatures knelt to worship the Child.

Source: Anne Thaxter Eaton, ed., Welcome Christmas! A Garland Of Poems. New York: The Viking Press, 1955.