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Bread and Circuses

Chapter 31: IN BETHLEHEM TOWN
By Helen Parry Eden
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Poetry

About This Book

A lyrical collection of short poems ranges from quiet country scenes and childhood memories to urban sketches and religious reflections. The poet renders streams, gardens, market sellers, and domestic interiors in close sensory detail while pairing everyday observation with moral and spiritual meditation. Animal vignettes and playful pieces for children sit alongside elegies, prayers, and ironic portraits of modern life, producing tones of humour, tenderness, and solemnity. Varied forms and concise portraits move between pastoral lanes, London streets, and intimate household moments while attending to time, sorrow, and faith.

IN BETHLEHEM TOWN

In Bethlehem Town by lantern light Installèd is our King to-night Who for us men shall come to weep Our sins alone while very deep In shade of leaves His comrades sleep. To-night we rise with Thee to pray, O parve Jesu Domine.
In Bethlehem Town the shepherds spread Their fairest fleeces for Thy head Which for us men with buffets broke Shall stain the mockery of Thy cloak For the rude scorn of sinful folk. No scorn know we who sing and say, O parve Jesu Domine.
In Bethlehem Town soft linens wrap Thy limbs upon Thy Mother’s lap Which for us men shall soon be bound Fast to the pillar whilst around The plying scourges fall and wound. Alas, our sins be sharp as they, O parve Jesu Domine.
In Bethlehem Town Thou scarce couldst hold The three Kings’ gift of myrrh and gold Who for us men shall come to groan Beneath a guerdon not Thine own, Thy most dispiteous cross, alone. Now Simon’s part be ours to play, O parve Jesu Domine.
In Bethlehem Town Thy Mother’s knee Bore Bliss Itself in bearing Thee Who for us men with arms outspanned The Cross shall bear while she doth stand With pardon at Thy piercèd hand. So may we stand with her alway, O parve Jesu Domine.