Christmas Day in the Morning by L. Edna Walter
A carol in which the speaker recounts seeing three ships sail in on Christmas Day, carrying the Saviour Christ and His lady, bound for Bethlehem. It calls for the earth's bells to ring, Heaven's angels to sing, and all souls on earth to sing, closing with a call to rejoice.
By L. Edna Walter · First published 1866 · Genre: Religious/Spiritual, Christmas/Holiday, Folk Music/Traditional Ballad · 365 words
First lines
[Music]
1. I saw three ships come sailing in, / On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; / I saw three ships come sailing in, / On Christmas Day in the morning.
Similar titles
- Christmas Carol by Sara Teasdale
- Happy The Birth Where Grace Presides by John Newton
- The Evening Prayer by Sabine Baring Gould
- O How I Love Thy Holy Word by John Newton
- The Ballad Of Calnans Christmas by Helen Gray Cone
- The Shepherds Carol Of Bethlehem by Frederic Manning
Genres
- Religious/Spiritual — The central subject is Christ and His lady sailing to Bethlehem with explicit references to the Saviour, divine celebration, angels in Heaven, and spiritual rejoicing, making religious themes paramount.
- Christmas/Holiday — The work is explicitly structured around Christmas Day, repeated throughout each verse, establishing the holiday as the essential temporal and thematic framework.
- Folk Music/Traditional Ballad — The piece exhibits characteristics of traditional folk ballads with narrative storytelling, repetitive verse structure, and the formulaic refrain pattern typical of oral tradition carol forms.
- Sacred Music/Hymnal — The work functions as a hymn designed for communal singing in religious contexts, with its call to collective rejoicing and spiritual contemplation aligning with hymnal conventions.
Tags
carol · Christmas · nativity · three ships · Bethlehem · Saviour · Incarnation · angels · bells · heaven · earth · devotional
What this Textopian page supports
Christmas Day in the Morning is listed on Textopian as a poem by L. Edna Walter, dated 1866 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: L. Edna Walter
- Date: 1866 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Religious/Spiritual, Christmas/Holiday, Folk Music/Traditional Ballad, Sacred Music/Hymnal, Poetry/Verse
- Length: 365 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Christmas Day in the Morning by L. Edna Walter
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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