Christmas
The Three Ships
- Words:
- Alfred Noyes
- Music:
- Colin Taylor
Sheet music
- 1As I went up the mountain-sideThe sea below me glitter'd wide,And eastward, far away, I spiedOn Christmas Day, on Christmas Day,The three great ships that take the tideOn Christmas Day in the morning.
- 2Ye have heard the song, how these must plyFrom the harbors of home to the ports o' the sky!Do ye dream none knoweth the whither and whyOn Christmas Day, on Christmas Day,The three great ships go sailing byOn Christmas Day in the morning?
- 3Yet as I live, I never knewThat ever a song could ring so true,Till I saw them break thru a haze of blueOn Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;And the marvelous ancient flags they flewOn Christmas Day in the morning!
- 4From the heights above the belfried townI saw that the sails were patched and brown,But the flags were aflame with a great renownOn Christmas Day, on Christmas Day,And on every mast was a golden crownOn Christmas Day in the morning.
- 5The sun and the wind they told me thereHow goodly a load the three ships bear,For the first is gold and the second is myrrh,On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;And the third is frankincense most rare,On Christmas Day in the morning.
- 6They have mixed their shrouds with the golden sky,They have faded away where the last dreams die.Ah yet, will ye watch, when the mist lifts highOn Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?Will ye see three ships come sailing byOn Christmas Day in the morning?
In the hymnals
- The words are in 1 hymnal indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The sheet music and words are from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.