| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | December 22 | | George Eliot | | By James Ashcroft Noble (1844–1896) |
| | | “THY prayer is granted: thou hast joined the Choir | |
| Invisible; the Choir whose music makes | |
| Life’s discords grow to harmonies, and takes | |
| Us unawares with sounds that are as fire | |
| And light and melody in one. We tire | 5 |
| Of weary noon and night, of dawn that breaks | |
| Only to bring again the cares, the aches, | |
| The meannesses that drag us to the mire: | |
| |
| When lo! amid life’s din we catch thy clear | |
| Large utterances from the lucid upper air, | 10 |
| Bidding us wipe away the miry stain, | |
| And scale the stainless stars, and have no fear | |
| Save the one dread of forfeiting our share | |
| In the deep joy that follows noble pain.” | | | | |
|
|
