The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive > Arthur Sullivan > Hymns

To MIDI File Noel  

(D.C.M.)

Adapted from a traditional tune.

1 It came upon the midnight clear,   2 Still through the cloven skies they come
    That glorious song of old,       With peaceful wings unfurled;
  From angels bending near the earth     And still their heavenly music floats
    To touch their harps of gold:       O’er all the weary world;
  “Peace on the earth, good-will to men,”     Above its sad and lowly plains
    From heaven’s all-gracious King!       They bend on hovering wing,
  The world in solemn stillness lay     And ever o’er its Babel sounds
    To hear the angels sing.       The blessèd angels sing.
             
3 Yet with the woes of sin and strife   4 O Prince of Peace, Thou knowest well
    The world has waited long;       This weary world below;
  Beneath the angel strain have rolled     Thou seëst how men climb the way
    Two thousand years of wrong;       With painful steps and slow.
  And man, at war with man, hears not     Oh! still the jarring sounds of earth
    The words of peace they bring:       That round the pathway ring,
  Oh! listen now, ye men of strife,     And bid the toilers rest awhile
    And hear the angels sing.       To hear the angels sing! Amen.

Edmund Hamilton Sears, 1810 - 76.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive | Arthur Sullivan | Hymns

Page modified 25 November 2007