Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

I'm reminded of the Christian carol:

   It came upon the midnight clear,
   That glorious song of old,
   From angels bending near the earth,
   To touch their harps of gold:
   "Peace on the earth, goodwill to men
   From heavens all gracious King!"
   The world in solemn stillness lay
   To hear the angels sing.
   
   Still through the cloven skies they come,
   With peaceful wings unfurled;
   And still their heavenly music floats
   O'er all the weary world:
   Above its sad and lowly plains
   They bend on hovering wing,
   And ever o'er its Babel sounds
   The blessed angels sing.
   
   O ye beneath life's crushing load,
   Whose forms are bending low,
   Who toil along the climbing way
   With painful steps and slow;
   Look now, for glad and golden hours
   Come swiftly on the wing;
   Oh rest beside the weary road
   And hear the angels sing.
   
   For lo! the days are hastening on,
   By prophets seen of old,
   When with the ever-circling years
   Shall come the time foretold,
   When the new heaven and earth shall own
   The Prince of Peace, their King,
   And the whole world send back the song
   Which now the angels sing.

Inversions of the usual "adjective(s) noun" order:

   the midnight clear
   painful steps and slow
   the time foretold

Other rearrangements would be necessary to turn it into conventional
(and uninspiring) prose.

Don Phillipson filted:

One is almost surprised that Dorothy Parker didn't write "up fwowed Weader
Tonstant"....r