Hush

[poliphilo]

Christmas is a quiet time of year. I don't know whether the noise actually grows less or whether the effect is spiritual/psychological, but my experience is that round about now, each year, a hush descends.

As if the world were responding to the injunction in the Christmas hymn-

O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.

I pause now and listen and- yes- it's very quiet. I can hear the washing machine chunnering away to itself and someone trying to sell us something through the medium of my mother's TV set- which has the sound turned down so low I can't make out any actual words- but otherwise there's nothing much...

But....

2020 has been very quiet all the way through- or at least since early Spring- so the difference is barely noticeable.

Comments

[cmcmck]

There are a few lines from this one that have stayed with me from my C of E days.


'Beneath the angel's song have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love song which they bring; –
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!'


Maybe my becoming a Quaker and a pacifist isn't so surprising after all. :o)

[poliphilo]

It's always been a favourite of mine.

For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.