{"id":1182,"date":"2011-02-10T08:57:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T00:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2013-11-25T13:33:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T05:33:31","slug":"time-christmas-wassailing-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/2011\/02\/time-christmas-wassailing-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Just In Time For Christmas: The Wassailing Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A merry band went wassailing, out through drifts of winter\u2019s snow.
\nThey left along the hidden path that all wassailers know.
\nBut returning from their wassails to warm by Christmas hearth,
\nTheir merry band had doubled, and was twice those that went forth.<\/p>\n

Moved by a curiosity, no doubt born of Christmas cheer,
\nI hid amongst some bushes when next the wassailers came near.
\nThrough the secret meadows and along the unmarked road,
\nI stalked the outbound choir, to know where their growth was owed.<\/p>\n

From a dark and glutted building, still as a Christmas mouse,
\nI watched as the wassailers approached a bewreathed house.
\nWarming to their wassail, a family came to fill the door,
\nAnd then the song proceeded. It lives with me forevermore.<\/p>\n

The starry night, the fretted neck, along which rang the chorus line.
\nThe notes as clear as crystalled winter, ringing out in frozen time.
\nA countless thousand harmonies, at once near yet beyond reach,
\nInvolving every ounce of air, robbing Nature of her speech.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the gathered wassailers could once repeat their sounding joy,
\nThe attendant family had come and joined the wassailing envoy.
\nVoices raised in Christmas, they marched together down the street,
\nAnd I, I followed after, as if Marley\u2019s ghost compelled my feet.<\/p>\n

Through the silvered city, stores would empty to greet the song,
\nAnd every one who listened was converted to the throng.
\nMulled wine was left to cooling, the turkey abandoned there to rot,
\nJob posts went untended, and babies were left crying in the cot.<\/p>\n

Lovers broken from embraces, surgeons from patients in distress,
\nJoined in their interrupted finest, or arrived in gross undress.
\nEven motorists in transit, tumbling abruptly from speeding cars,
\nWould crawl along after the song, streaking blood across the tar.<\/p>\n

Bewitching mind, bedeviling ear \u2013 beguiling whosoever chances hear
\nIts demonic promise of delights, its jolly strains of godless cheer!
\nA siren song of sallow tinsel, a gift loveless and hollow of all benefit,
\nLike sulfuric coal inside your stocking, burning the hand to close on it.<\/p>\n

Noel! Noel! Natalis lumen, nephel. So cried the Adversary as he fell
\nAcross the void, through silent night, unto the fiery lakes of hell,
\nWhere screams are mocked by tawdry jingling bells,
\nAnd holly decks the halls of Mulciber, and crowns accursed Azazel!<\/p>\n

Subsuming all the wassail-able, the wassailing army still did not cease,
\nBut will insist on piggy pudding till the whole earth knows their peace.
\nAn incessant, drumming \u201crum pum pum\u201d from a place far and forlorn,
\nKeeps the shuffling footsteps moving, marching Westward, ever on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve past the end of my retelling, yet you seem unmoved by the affair.
\nPerhaps you notice I\u2019ve been wassailing and returned no worse for wear.
\nYou suppose that I\u2019ve escaped somehow, and therefore you can too,
\nBut of course I\u2019ve known and know the song, and now, friend, so do you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wassail!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A merry band went wassailing, out through drifts of winter\u2019s snow. They left along the hidden path that all wassailers know. But returning from their wassails to warm by Christmas hearth, Their merry band had doubled, and was twice those that went forth. Moved by a curiosity, no doubt born of Christmas cheer, I hid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1369,1368,1371,204,1370,1069,1367,1366],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-adversary","tag-apocalypse","tag-caroling","tag-christmas","tag-globalization","tag-hell","tag-mulled-wine","tag-wassailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}