Lyric Poem · Peace
O Little Town of Bethlehem
by Phillips Brooks · 1868
1O little town of Bethlehem,
2How still we see thee lie!
3Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
4The silent stars go by;
5Yet in thy dark streets shineth
6The everlasting Light;
7The hopes and fears of all the years
8Are met in thee to-night.
9For Christ is born of Mary,
10And, gathered all above,
11While mortals sleep, the angels keep
12Their watch of wondering love.
13O morning stars, together
14Proclaim the holy birth!
15And praises sing to God the King,
16And peace to men on earth.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Phillips Brooks — quilloak.com/poems/o-little-town-of-bethlehem
Quick facts
- Poem
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- Poet
- Phillips Brooks
- Published
- 1868
- Length
- 32 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Peace, Hope
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 32 lines · 4 octaves
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Phillips Brooks1835–1893
- Source record
- Project Gutenberg eBook #18908, Christmas, ed. Robert Haven Schauffler (1907)O Little Town of Bethlehem; Written for a Sunday-school Christmas service and first sung on 27 December 1868; first printed in The Sunday School Service and Hymn Book (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1870). This text is as printed in Robert Haven Schauffler, ed., Christmas (1907)
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-11-04
- Publication record
- Written for a Sunday-school Christmas service and first sung on 27 December 1868; first printed in The Sunday School Service and Hymn Book (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1870). This text is as printed in Robert Haven Schauffler, ed., Christmas (1907)
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 de0aa1b15645a6e3…
- Editorial handling
- As printed in the 1907 anthology, which gives the four stanzas usually sung and leaves out Brooks's original fourth stanza. No other change.