DLTK's Poems
The Night Before
Christmas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all
through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St.
Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in
their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for
a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window
I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of
mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should
appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a
little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be
St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he
whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
'Now, Dasher! now,
Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and
Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash
away! dash away! dash away all!'
As dry leaves that before the wild
hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full
of toys - and St. Nicholas too.
And then in a twinkling I heard on
the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in
my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came
with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of
toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just
opening his pack.
His eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little
mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white
as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And
the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face
and a little round belly
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful
of jelly.
He was chubby and plump - a right jolly old elf;
And I
laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye, and a
twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He
spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the
stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of
his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to
his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like
the down of a thistle;
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of
sight,
'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!'
