Preparations Christ Church MS: Every Year, This Poem...

.... comes to mind. Perhaps it is my favorite Old English poem of Yuletide

Preparations Christ Church MS

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Yet if His Majesty, our Sovereign Lord

Should of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say, “I’ll be your guest tomorrow night.”
How we should stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work “Let no one idle stand!”

“Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall,
See they are fitted all.
Let there be room to eat
And orders taken that there want no meat.
See ev'ry sconce and candlestick made bright,
That without tapers they may give a light!”

Look to the presence: are the carpets spread,
The dazie o’er the head,
The cushions in the chairs,
And all the candles lighted on the stairs?
Perfume the chambers, and in any case
Let each man give attendance in his place!’



Thus, if a king were coming, would we do;
And ’twere good reason too;
For ’tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king,
And after all our travail and our cost,
So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.

But at the coming of the King of Heaven,
All’s set at six and seven;
We wallow in our sin.
Christ cannot find a chamber at the inn.
We entertain him always like a stranger,
And as at first still lodge him in the manger.




https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/the-oxford-book-of-english-verse/60-preparations-christ-church-ms
Set to music by Joseph W. Clokey, under the title 'Two Kings.’


St Olaf Choral Ensembles Two Kings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhq_vsaf0HQ&t=42s