Poem highlights meaning of Christmas
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Editor,
Some 68 years ago, Lake County superintendant of schools, Mary Louise Graves, penned these lines to show support for those fighting for freedom and to testify of the true meaning of Christmas. Today, this is still worth reading through several times, emphasizing her punctuation.
There Shall Be Candles Still
By Mary Louise Graves
Dec. 24, 1942
There shall be candles still
Sending their gleam across a world at war;
On our hearth shall burn the yule log,
And a wreath of holly shall adorn our door.
These things? All these … with him away?
On our quiet hill …
There shall be candles still.
Because he went away
Our candles burn this Christmas night
With brighter gleam, with sacred light,
And ‘midst their glow I breathe a prayer
For our son—-yours and mine—- Somewhere …
“Oh, God, please keep him safe, wherever he be
On land, in air … across the sea,”
On our quiet hill …
There shall be candles still.
As Mary gave the world a son
That Peace on Earth might be,
So we have given, as she gave then,
Our son to right the wrongs
That have been done,
And bring Good Will to Men
On our quiet hill …
There shall be candles still.
Merry Christmas from the Miracle of America Museum.
Gil and Joanne Mangels
Polson
