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Rorate coeli desuper!
(Drop down ye heavens from above)
Heavens, distil your balmy showers;
For now is risen the bright Daystar,
From the rose of Mary, flow’r of flow’rs;
The clear Sun, whom no cloud devours,
Surmounting Phoebus in the east,
Is comen of his heav’nly tow’rs,
Et nobis puer natus est.
(And a boy is born to us.)
Sinners be glad, and penance do,
And thank your Maker heartfully;
For he that ye might not come to,
To you is comen full humbly,
Your soules with his blood to buy,
And loose you of the fiend’s arrest,
And only of his own mercy;
Pro nobis puer natus est.
(And a boy is born for us.)
Celestial fowles in the air,
Sing with your notes upon the height,
In firthes and in forests fair
Be mirthful now at all your might;
For passed is your dully night;
Aurora has the cloudes pierced,
The sun is ris’n with gladsome light,
Et nobis puer natus est.
Sing, heav’n imperial, most of height,
Regions of air make harmony,
All fish in flood and fowl of flight
Be mirthful and make melody;
All Gloria in excelsis cry,
Heaven, earth, sea, man, birds, and beast;
He that is crowned above the sky
Pro nobis puer natus est.
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