The time draws near the birth of Christ;
⁠The moon is hid, the night is still;
⁠A single church below the hill
Is pealing, folded in the mist.

A single peal of bells below,
⁠That wakens at this hour of rest
⁠A single murmur in the breast,
That these are not the bells I know.

Like strangers' voices here they sound,
⁠In lands where not a memory strays,
⁠Nor landmark breathes of other days,
But all is new unhallow'd ground.