Yule Night! by Rev R. L. Gales

Merry Christmas!

This is an intriguing poem by Rev. R. L. Gales who seems to have been a significant supporter of the Peasant Arts movement.  His reference to "Sisters three with shuttle and shears work ceaselessly" and "The Sisters weaving still their thread" seems to be a direct reference to Maude Egerton King, and her sister Ethel Blount.  They had many sisters, but perhaps Marion Hine, who lived in Haslemere and was a typewriter for The Vineyard Press, was the third sister.

from The Vineyard
(No. 39, Vol 27)

At the Yule-tide the mummers go
Thro' woods of holly and mistletoe.

The deep midnight is all aflame
With the horns' din and torches' glare.

They pass a hut where Sisters three
With shuttle and shears work ceaselessly.

Like blood and tears the berries show
Of all the holly and mistletoe.

Deep in the wood a house they see
Half hidden in a mistletoe tree.

They enter in that Holy House
All overhung with the mistletoe boughs.

The blessed place within is bright
With soft kind light like glow-worm light.

A Mother and Babe they see in bliss,
Of Heaven and Earth they see the kiss.

The mummers sing for a broken spell
Thro' all the wood "Nowell, Nowell!"

The Sisters weaving still their thread
Find gold amid their black and red.

Like rubies and pearls the berries glow
Of all the holly and mistletoe."