At Christmas Time
By Dora Sigerson Shorter
For that old love I once adored
I decked my halls and spread my board
At Christmas time.
With all the winters flowers that grow
I wreathed my room, and mistletoe
Hung in the gloom of my doorway,
Wherein my dear lost love might stray
When joy-bells chime.
What phantom was it entered there
And drank his wine and took his chair
At Christmas time?
With holly boughs and mistletoe
He crowned his head, and at my woe
And tears I shed laughed long and loud;
Get back, O phantom! to thy shroud
When joy-bells chime.