“The story was their own — not far away,
As real as if it happened yesterday”

—  Stephen Vincent Benét

Narrator
A Child is Born (1942)
Context: I'm your narrator. It's my task to say
Just where and how things happen in our play,
Set the bare stage with words instead of props
And keep on talking till the curtain drops. …
It's an old task — old as the human heart,
Old as those bygone players and their art
Who, in old days when faith was nearer earth,
Played out the mystery of Jesus' birth
In hall or village green or market square
For all who chose to come and see them there,
And, if they knew that King Herod, in his crown,
Was really Wat, the cobbler of the town,
And Tom, the fool, played Abraham the Wise,
They did not care. They saw with other eyes.
The story was their own — not far away,
As real as if it happened yesterday,
Full of all awe and wonder yet so near,
A marvelous thing that could have happened here
In their own town — a star that could have blazed
On their own shepherds, leaving them amazed,
Frightened and questioning and following still
To the bare stable — and the miracle.

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Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Stephen Vincent Benét 102
poet, short story writer, novelist 1898–1943

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“I'm your narrator. It's my task to say
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Set the bare stage with words instead of props
And keep on talking till the curtain drops. …
It's an old task — old as the human heart,
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And, if they knew that King Herod, in his crown,
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And Tom, the fool, played Abraham the Wise,
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The story was their own — not far away,
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Full of all awe and wonder yet so near,
A marvelous thing that could have happened here
In their own town — a star that could have blazed
On their own shepherds, leaving them amazed,
Frightened and questioning and following still
To the bare stable — and the miracle.”

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Source: A Child is Born (1942)

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