Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/71



HEN the first Christmas presents came, the straw where Christ was rolled

Smelt sweeter than their frankincense, burnt brighter than their gold,

And a wise man said, "We will not give; the thanks would be but cold."

"Nay," said the next, "To all new gifts, to this gift or another,

Bends the high gratitude of God; even as He now, my brother,

Who had a Father for all time, yet thanks Him for a Mother.

"Yet scarce for Him this yellow stone or prickly smells and sparse,

Who holds the gold heart of the sun that fed these timber bars,

Nor any scentless lily lives for One that smells the stars."

Then spake the third of the Wise Men; the wisest of the three:

"We may not with the widest lives enlarge His liberty,

Whose wings are wider than the world. It is not He, but we.