From the silent forests
I have come to keep
Tryst with all the children
Who dreamed me in their sleep.
Trim me with your baubles,
Chains of pearl and gold,
Death has touched my needles
And I shall soon grow cold.
Pin a crown of diamonds
Upon my topmost bough
That has known no splendor
But sun and snow ’til now.
Clothe me in a raiment
Beset with bubble gems:
Loop fair strands of silver
Around my withering stems.
Deck me with these trinkets
Though they be shroud to me;
It is sweet and fitting
To die a Christmas tree.
Sweet to leave the forest,
Sweet to leave the wild,
Sweet to die if dying
Brings gladness to a child.
This offering comes from Duren’s 1926 collection Earthbound.
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