Christmas Carols
Relatively few well-known carols depict the adoration of the shepherds (as opposed to the annunciation to the shepherds). Most of these do so along the lines of urging the listener to come to Bethlehem. For example, the modern Calypso Carol has the lines "Shepherds swiftly from your stupor rise / to see the Saviour of the world," and the chorus "O now carry me to Bethlehem." Angels We Have Heard on High says, "Come to Bethlehem and see / Him Whose birth the angels sing."
Adeste Fideles also has a verse which runs:
See how the shepherds,
Summoned to His cradle,
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither
Bend our joyful footsteps.
The Czech carol Nesem Vám Noviny is a rare example of a carol which is mostly about the adoration of the shepherds. The middle verse of Mari Ruef Hofer's English version runs:
Hasten then, hasten to Bethlehem’s stall,
There to see heaven descend to us all.
With holy feeling, there humbly kneeling,
We will adore Him, bow down before Him,
Worship the King.
Read more about this topic: Adoration Of The Shepherds
Famous quotes containing the words christmas and/or carols:
“I heard the bells, on Christmas Day,
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and
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The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off
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—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)