Santa Clausby Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)On wool-soft feet he peeps and creeps, While in the moon-blanched snow, Tossing thier sled-belled antlered heads, His reindeer wait below. Bright eyes, peaked beard, and bulging sack, He stays to listen, and look, because A child lies sleeping out of sight, And this is Santa Claus. "Hast thou, in Fancy, trodden where lie Leagues of ice beneath the sky? Where bergs, like palaces of light, Emerald, sapphire, crystal white, Glimmer in the polar night? Hast though heard in dead of dark The mighty Sea-lion's shuddering bark? Seen, shuffling through the crusted snow, The blue-eyed Bears a-hunting go? And in leagues of space o'erhead-- Radiant Aurora's glory spread? Hast thou?" "Why?" "My child, because There dwells thy loved Santa Claus."
Christmas Poems
|