Canto XXIX

With such compelling cause to grieve

      As daily vexes household peace,

      And chains regret to his decease,

How dare we keep our Christmas-eve;

Which brings no more a welcome guest

      To enrich the threshold of the night

      With shower'd largess of delight,

In dance and song and game and jest.

Yet go, and while the holly boughs

      Entwine the cold baptismal font,

      Make one wreath more for Use and Wont,

That guard the portals of the house;

Old sisters of a day gone by,

      Gray nurses, loving nothing new;

      Why should they miss their yearly due

Before their time? They too will die.