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Innocents Song
Who's that knocking on the window,
Who's that standing at the door,
What
are all those presents
Laying on the kitchen floor?
Who is the smiling stranger
With hair as white as gin,
What
is he doing with the children
And who could have let him in?
Why has he rubies on his fingers,
A cold, cold crown
on his head,
Why, when he caws his carol,
Does the salty snow run red?
Why does he ferry my fireside
As a
spider on a thread,
His fingers made of fuses
And his tongue of gingerbread?
Why does the world before him
Melt
in a million suns,
Why do his yellow, yearning eyes
Burn like saffron buns?
Watch where he comes walking
Out
of the Christmas flame,
Dancing, double-talking:
Herod is his name.
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Innocents’ Song/ Gwithian
A new setting of Cornishman
Charles Causley's chilling
Christmas poem woven
into another of Phil's coastal melodies.
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related internet links
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Charles Causley
reading his own poems
the extensive Wikipedia entry
an essay by British poet and
critic, Dana Gioia on Cornish poet
Charles Causley
it's a tune by this fine musician
that accompanies the words
to this song
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