Robert Stephen Hawker (1803–1875)

WAES-HAEL for knight and dame!

O merry be their dole!

Drink-hael! in Jesu’s name

We fill the tawny bowl;

But cover down the curving crest,

Mould of the Orient Lady’s breast.

Waes-hael! yet lift no lid:

Drain ye the reeds for wine.

Drink-hael! the milk was hid

That soothed that Babe divine;

Hush’d, as this hollow channel flows,

He drew the balsam from the rose.

Waes-hael! thus glow’d the breast

Where a God yearn’d to cling;

Drink-hael! so Jesu press’d

Life from its mystic spring;

Then hush and bend in reverent sign,

And breathe the thrilling reeds for wine.

Waes-hael! in shadowy scene

Lo! Christmas children we:

Drink-hael! behold we lean

At a far Mother’s knee;

To dream that thus her bosom smiled,

And learn the lip of Bethlehem’s Child.