J. U. Nicolson
J. U. Nicolson was a twentieth-century American poet and translator of poetry. Born John Urban Nicolson on October 9th, 1885, in Alma, Kansas, he spent most of his professional life in Chicago, where he served as General Manager of the Central Storage & Forwarding Company.
Nicolson first achieved notice as a “column poet,” so-called for the appearance of his early work in the literary columns of several Chicago newspapers under the pseudonym, “The King of the Black Isles.”
Caravan suggestive of the “Three Wise Men.” Photo Credit: Library of Congress.
A Christmas Idyll
There were three mages of the East
Went bearing gifts to make a feast
And came to Bethlehem.
The first mage brought of frankincense
Full goodly store for reverence
In woven anadem;
The second, in his mantle’s fold,
Bare beaten silver and red gold;
Whiles for an harbinger
There flamed a strange white Star in Heaven,
Waxen more bright than planets seven;
The third mage carrieth myrrh.
*****
All weary in a tavern shed
Lay Mary that was brought to bed
Of Godis only Son.
And Mary had for handmaidens
Three women that were never men’s
To wive as all men wonn.
Two damsels were right fair and sweet,
The third wore over hands and feet
Amber from sea-side ta’en;
And Mary’s cloke was soft with fur
And a gold girdle belted her
Of writhen serpents twain.
*****
Three mages stand upon the straw.
They lifted up their eyne and saw
The Blessed Babe; and laid
Down treasures of bright Eastern kings —
Spikenard and gems and finger-rings
And pearls and purple and jade —
Whereat a golden beam of light
Fell in slant wise athwart the night
And Angels thronged thereon
Came caroling from the Halls of Heaven,
“Lo, unto us a Child is given
And unto us a Son!”
“A Christmas Idyl” is excerpted from King of the Black Isles by J. U. Nicolson, published in 2023 by Ether Editions.
