Choosing the Mistletoe
E.
Matheson
Matheson, E.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Fralick
Kaitlyn
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Chambers’s Journal ledger indicates that Matheson was paid 10s 6d for the poem (NLS Dep 341/370). (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
5
7
363
800
’Twas Christmas Eve, and all the land
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Choosing the Mistleto
e.
’Twas Christmas Eve, and all the land
Had donned a robe of spotless white,
When through the orchard, hand in hand,
We went amid the waning light.
For you had left the cheerful town,
And walked a mile across the snow,
To hold the apple branches down,
And help me choose the mistletoe.
Each tempting bough with frost was wreathed ;
The creamy berries grew so high,
They shone like pearls in silver sheathed
Against the brightness of the sky.
It must have been the sunset red
Which lent my cheeks that crimson glow,
As, softly o’er my drooping head,
You—held a spray of mistletoe.
The glory of the west grew pale
And faded to a primrose bar ;
Grave Twilight dropped her misty veil,
And clasped it with a diamond star,
The chimes rang out for Evensong
Before we thought ’twas time to go :
It always seems to take so long
When two must choose the mistletoe.
Since then, the years have rolled away,
And other lips sweet stories tell ;
And other lovers stroll to-day
Adown the path we loved so well.
Dear heart, old memories make me weep,
But you—you only smile to know
That with Love’s dearest gifts I keep
A withered spray of mistletoe.
E. Matheson
.