The wise men

Sometimes I like to think of the three wise men as Langland, Blake and Milton - Langland setting out on a May morning with a gift of poems Blake on a tiger with a bow of burning gold And blind Milton led by an inner star The shepherds arrived first with their songs The poets were latecomers At Bethlehem we must each imagine the scene for ourselves Was it a cave or a stable? There is no way of knowing for certain The ox and the ass were the inspired interpretation of poets and others George Herbert added a horse and Christina Rossetti a camel One day the cave will become like a second ark No longer will the lion roar in the depths of the jungle Quiet as a shadow he will slide in and lie down with the lambs and the mice in the rustling straw