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The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Date: 2003-12-21 05:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hobbitbabe.livejournal.com
Is this the same Susan Cooper who wrote The Dark is Rising, one of the loveliest, creepiest, winter-solstice magic novels I've ever read?

Date: 2003-12-21 06:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rivka.livejournal.com
Yes, that's her. The Dark is Rising is my favorite book in the series.

Date: 2003-12-21 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hobbitbabe.livejournal.com
Mine too. I just re-read it because it captures something about the season so well.

Date: 2003-12-22 06:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wiredferret.livejournal.com
Yes, that's what I was going to ask, too. Yum.

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