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On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
28 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2012
About the author
John Milton
3,861 books2,286 followersPeople best know John Milton, English scholar, for
Paradise Lost
, the epic poem of 1667 and an account of fall of humanity from grace.
Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.
Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.
John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.
Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.
William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."
Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.
Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.
Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.
John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.
Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.
William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."
Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 25, 2017
"This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing.
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace."
Intro/Background:
This is, in a modern sense, a very unusual Christmas poem. This is not Clement Clarke Moore or Charles Dickens, but a very specifically Christian poem. It was written by an unknown 21 year old John Milton, fresh out of school. He was not the world famous author of Paradise Lost yet; he was, by now, a member of the Puritan movement that was emerging in the Church of England. Puritans, though religious, did not see the point in festive celebrations of Christmas or any holiday, considering celebrations like that to be pagan--or worse Catholic. This did not meant that people like Milton did not believe in Christmas, but that it should be more solemnly focus as appose to festive or commercial.
The poem itself:
The poem is divided into two parts, a 4-stanza introduction and a 27-stanza "hymn." The first 4 stanzas deal with the birth of Christ itself and the "hymn" section deals with the ramifications of Jesus' birth. This is one of the first "proper" poems Milton ever wrote and while some of the ideas and themes of his later works are showing up here, the form itself is not that spectacular. This was still the era of Shakespeare and John Donne who were the literary giants of the day, Milton would have to wait a few more years before people recognized him.
As stated earlier, the first four lines are what anyone with a passing knowledge of Christianity or John Milton would expect. He describes the wonder and magic of the Nativity and he uses very "unique" or "zany" imagery. My personal favorite is the stanza on the three wise-men/kings/magi who Milton calls "wizards":
This means that from now on I imagine the guys who gave gifts to the the baby Jesus to be Gandalf, Dumbledore, and Obi-Wan Kanobi (jedis are half wizards, half samurai right?) which makes the Journey of the Magi much more awesome. After the intro-stanzas comes the hymn section where the business starts.
The moment after Jesus is born is, for Milton, an epic moment of recognition, not just by man and nature, but by the pagan Gods that dominated before Christianity. The descriptions here are truly amazing in any sense of that word and are hard to describe unless you are familiar with Milton's style:
The middle third of this poem describes natures reaction of wonder, shock and awe at the birth. It is often hard to describe Milton because the words he uses have changed meaning in between the 17th century and now. In fact, Milton was infamous for being difficult to grasp in his own time thanks to his uncanny knowledge of nearly every word ever! For every one meaning or phrase, he knew 20 different words that could be used. Another thing that leaps out for me hear is his reassigning of the Greek Pantheon to Abrahamic figures (e.g. the Muse, a Greek goddess, becomes the Heavenly Muse which I take to mean Holy Spirit and Jesus himself becomes Pan the Nature god).
"The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below:
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep."
The last third of this poem was Milton describing what happened to the pagan gods after Christ's arrival. Milton takes a very extensive name-check of every type of pagan deity he can think of from Babylon to Germany and details how the Gods end up working for Jesus, breaking and running, or simply being destroyed.
"The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell."
Throughout all the vivid imagery, the Nativity story is still being told, but with less little drummer boy and more demon-slaying--you know, Christmas! This poem may be more suitable for Advent and definitely is not going to be apart of any secular celebration, but if you can stand Milton's early prose style, like a little less sentimental mushiness, and get some amusement out of the idea of "Our Babe, to shew his Godhead true,/Can in his swadling bands controul the damned crew." This is, by a mile, the most unique Christmas poem I have ever read. Merry Christmas.
"But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.
Time is our tedious Song should here have ending,
Heav'ns youngest-teemed Star
Hath fixt her polisht Car,
Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending.
And all about the Courtly Stable,
Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable."
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing.
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace."
Intro/Background:
This is, in a modern sense, a very unusual Christmas poem. This is not Clement Clarke Moore or Charles Dickens, but a very specifically Christian poem. It was written by an unknown 21 year old John Milton, fresh out of school. He was not the world famous author of Paradise Lost yet; he was, by now, a member of the Puritan movement that was emerging in the Church of England. Puritans, though religious, did not see the point in festive celebrations of Christmas or any holiday, considering celebrations like that to be pagan--or worse Catholic. This did not meant that people like Milton did not believe in Christmas, but that it should be more solemnly focus as appose to festive or commercial.
The poem itself:
The poem is divided into two parts, a 4-stanza introduction and a 27-stanza "hymn." The first 4 stanzas deal with the birth of Christ itself and the "hymn" section deals with the ramifications of Jesus' birth. This is one of the first "proper" poems Milton ever wrote and while some of the ideas and themes of his later works are showing up here, the form itself is not that spectacular. This was still the era of Shakespeare and John Donne who were the literary giants of the day, Milton would have to wait a few more years before people recognized him.
As stated earlier, the first four lines are what anyone with a passing knowledge of Christianity or John Milton would expect. He describes the wonder and magic of the Nativity and he uses very "unique" or "zany" imagery. My personal favorite is the stanza on the three wise-men/kings/magi who Milton calls "wizards":
"See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The star-led Wizards haste with odours sweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire[sic],
From out his secret Altar touch'd with hallow'd fire."
This means that from now on I imagine the guys who gave gifts to the the baby Jesus to be Gandalf, Dumbledore, and Obi-Wan Kanobi (jedis are half wizards, half samurai right?) which makes the Journey of the Magi much more awesome. After the intro-stanzas comes the hymn section where the business starts.
The moment after Jesus is born is, for Milton, an epic moment of recognition, not just by man and nature, but by the pagan Gods that dominated before Christianity. The descriptions here are truly amazing in any sense of that word and are hard to describe unless you are familiar with Milton's style:
"The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fixt in steadfast gaze,
Bending one way their precious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light...
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go."
The middle third of this poem describes natures reaction of wonder, shock and awe at the birth. It is often hard to describe Milton because the words he uses have changed meaning in between the 17th century and now. In fact, Milton was infamous for being difficult to grasp in his own time thanks to his uncanny knowledge of nearly every word ever! For every one meaning or phrase, he knew 20 different words that could be used. Another thing that leaps out for me hear is his reassigning of the Greek Pantheon to Abrahamic figures (e.g. the Muse, a Greek goddess, becomes the Heavenly Muse which I take to mean Holy Spirit and Jesus himself becomes Pan the Nature god).
"The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
Was kindly come to live with them below:
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep."
The last third of this poem was Milton describing what happened to the pagan gods after Christ's arrival. Milton takes a very extensive name-check of every type of pagan deity he can think of from Babylon to Germany and details how the Gods end up working for Jesus, breaking and running, or simply being destroyed.
"The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell."
Throughout all the vivid imagery, the Nativity story is still being told, but with less little drummer boy and more demon-slaying--you know, Christmas! This poem may be more suitable for Advent and definitely is not going to be apart of any secular celebration, but if you can stand Milton's early prose style, like a little less sentimental mushiness, and get some amusement out of the idea of "Our Babe, to shew his Godhead true,/Can in his swadling bands controul the damned crew." This is, by a mile, the most unique Christmas poem I have ever read. Merry Christmas.
"But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.
Time is our tedious Song should here have ending,
Heav'ns youngest-teemed Star
Hath fixt her polisht Car,
Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending.
And all about the Courtly Stable,
Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable."
February 11, 2024
Milton had a god complex and I stand by that.
January 24, 2024
Really beautiful and definitely warrants more than one read.
July 18, 2017
There are a couple flashes of brilliance in this poem/hymn, but on the whole, it's just a ho-hum ode to the birth of Jesus Christ.
February 6, 2026
This addition to my Goodreads is going to mess up my stats, but I don’t care I really wanted to review it after having class on it today.
For preface, or here I should use the term “Proem,” the one that I read was absolutely not 24 pages (more like 14). It was the entire poem from a larger book with a collection of Milton’s works, but we only read the selected poem.
First as some background, Milton was born in the 17th century after the Protestant Reformation in England. He was an extreme Puritan when in came to Christianity and in this poem it definitely shines through.
He used the words like “shame” and “guilt” when referring to the Virgin Mary, something a Catholic would never put on page as it doesn’t align with Catholic understanding of Mary. But despite this small distaste I had with the story, when it came to its other descriptions, I fairly enjoyed them. And at times, the descriptions appeared rather gothic. It depicted Pagan, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods dying and being silenced at the birth of Christ. It did well in showing the power of Christ and his introduction in a human body.
And even with Milton’s intense Puritan beliefs, Catholicism did shine through at times with a mention of the Eucharist in the form of a pun/double-meaning. My professor pointed it out and I quite enjoyed it:
“Full little thought they then,
That the might Pan
Was kindly come to live with the below”
Pan is, for one, a reference to the Pagan God of the land. That God is showing itself in its true form as Christ as the one who was actually leading earthly creation. But doubled, it is also a reference to language. French for “bread” is “pain,” which phonetically is the same, and Spanish for “bread” is “pan.” The body of Christ is represented by the Eucharistic sacrement. “This is My body [the bread], and this is My blood [wine].”
Redeeming characteristics of this poem were definitely most of the language used. And I also felt it was a much easier read after reading Spenser 🥲. But I do intend on reading Paradise Lost soon.
For preface, or here I should use the term “Proem,” the one that I read was absolutely not 24 pages (more like 14). It was the entire poem from a larger book with a collection of Milton’s works, but we only read the selected poem.
First as some background, Milton was born in the 17th century after the Protestant Reformation in England. He was an extreme Puritan when in came to Christianity and in this poem it definitely shines through.
He used the words like “shame” and “guilt” when referring to the Virgin Mary, something a Catholic would never put on page as it doesn’t align with Catholic understanding of Mary. But despite this small distaste I had with the story, when it came to its other descriptions, I fairly enjoyed them. And at times, the descriptions appeared rather gothic. It depicted Pagan, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods dying and being silenced at the birth of Christ. It did well in showing the power of Christ and his introduction in a human body.
And even with Milton’s intense Puritan beliefs, Catholicism did shine through at times with a mention of the Eucharist in the form of a pun/double-meaning. My professor pointed it out and I quite enjoyed it:
“Full little thought they then,
That the might Pan
Was kindly come to live with the below”
Pan is, for one, a reference to the Pagan God of the land. That God is showing itself in its true form as Christ as the one who was actually leading earthly creation. But doubled, it is also a reference to language. French for “bread” is “pain,” which phonetically is the same, and Spanish for “bread” is “pan.” The body of Christ is represented by the Eucharistic sacrement. “This is My body [the bread], and this is My blood [wine].”
Redeeming characteristics of this poem were definitely most of the language used. And I also felt it was a much easier read after reading Spenser 🥲. But I do intend on reading Paradise Lost soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2026
from On the Morning of Christ's Nativity by John Milton, published in 1629:
XXII
Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim,
With that twice-battered god of Palestine;
And moonèd Ashtaroth,
Heaven’s queen and mother both,
Now sits not girt with taper’s holy shine;
The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;
In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.
XXIII
And sullen Moloch, fled,
Hath left in shadows dread
His burning idol all of blackest hue;
In vain, with cymbals’ ring,
They call the grisly king,
In dismal dance about the furnace blue;
The brutish gods of Nile as fast,
Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.
XXIV
Nor is Osiris seen
In Memphian grove or green,
Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud;
Nor can he be at rest
Within his sacred chest,
Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud!
In vain with timbreled anthems dark
The sable-stolèd sorcerers bear his worshipped ark.
XXV
He feels from Judah’s land
The dreaded infant’s hand,
The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the gods beside
Longer dare abide,
Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine,
Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,
Can in His swaddling bands control the damnèd crew.
XXII
Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim,
With that twice-battered god of Palestine;
And moonèd Ashtaroth,
Heaven’s queen and mother both,
Now sits not girt with taper’s holy shine;
The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;
In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.
XXIII
And sullen Moloch, fled,
Hath left in shadows dread
His burning idol all of blackest hue;
In vain, with cymbals’ ring,
They call the grisly king,
In dismal dance about the furnace blue;
The brutish gods of Nile as fast,
Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.
XXIV
Nor is Osiris seen
In Memphian grove or green,
Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud;
Nor can he be at rest
Within his sacred chest,
Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud!
In vain with timbreled anthems dark
The sable-stolèd sorcerers bear his worshipped ark.
XXV
He feels from Judah’s land
The dreaded infant’s hand,
The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;
Nor all the gods beside
Longer dare abide,
Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine,
Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,
Can in His swaddling bands control the damnèd crew.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2019
This poem really establishes Milton as a poet on track to do something amazing. And really it's not even so much the talent on display here as it is just the sheer ambition of it. For a twenty-one year old to take on something as hackneyed as a poem about Christmas and then just turn it into this galaxy and eon spanning epic really signals that he's kind of an unstoppable force.
September 1, 2023
“No war or battles sound / was heard the world around: the idle spear and shield were high uphung; the hookèd chariot stood / Unstained with hostile blood, The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng; And the kings sat still with awful eye / As if they knew their sovereign Lord was by. // But peaceful was the night…” (53-61).
March 3, 2025
I'm working my way through Milton again, reading, rereading and studying, though it is a few years since I last read him. The new thing I got out this time was what a Baroque work it is in structure and ornament. There is next to nothing of the lowly, the very human, and a lot of god descending to earth.
December 25, 2017
Here’s the beauty of GoodReads...Christmas morning I read Ken’s excellent review of John Milton’s “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” and now this afternoon I’ve read the poem for myself.
Mo Milton, mo bettah...Merry Christmas 2017!
Mo Milton, mo bettah...Merry Christmas 2017!
November 19, 2017
Also found online at poetrysoup.com
February 17, 2019
Arguably the most important poem ever written in the West.
September 4, 2021
تقريبا مفهمتش حاجة، بس لازال عظيم
December 9, 2023
Read a snippet of this and I would love to read the rest when I have time.
June 2, 2025
banger
December 3, 2025
Best Milton to exist IMO
November 26, 2008
A nativity story about Jesus becoming Pan, written in soppy couplets. Aped by Nathaniel Hawthorne in "The Scarlet Letter" with considerably less dignity.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews