Christmas carols have second, third, and fourth verses.
“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” (1849, Edmund Hamilton Sears) And man at war with man hears not The tidings which they bring. O, hush the noise, ye men of strife And hear the angels sing.
O ye, beneath life's crushing load Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow, Look now, for glad and golden hours Come swiftly on the wing.
O, rest beside the weary road And hear the angels sing. For lo, the days are hastening on By prophets seen of old When with the ever-circling years Shall come the time foretold When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendors fling And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
