What Sweeter Music

What Sweeter Music is my favorite Christmas carol on a lyrics basis, and in my top five on a music basis. I've been pondering its lyrics this past while, and I think they are some of the most beautiful and meaningful words I've read. Here are the lyrics:

What Sweeter Music by Robert Herrick
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.
Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.
We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.
Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this reveling.
What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?

Some of my reflections on "What Sweeter Music"
"Awake the voice/the string" - the news of Christ not only moves us to song, but awakes our souls to joy we could not know without Christ
"Dark and dull nights fly hence away" - darkness cannot exists where there is light, and Christ brings light
"December turned to May" - Christ turns the darkest and coldest and most desolate of winters into the most blissful days of May and the barest of winters into fields beset with corn, just as He turned few loaves and fishes into food enough for the multitude.
"Life and luster public mirth" - Christ and the gospel give us the perspective to recognize the nothingness of worldly things, and Christmas affords us a rare occasion upon which people are united in their emphasis on godly things. This perspective is given not only to the living, but to the under-earth--that is, our dead.
"Thus on the sudden? Come and see" - the invitation to come and see echoes Christ's beckon to "come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest." We are also invited to see, by learning to perceive the spiritual things of the world and have the companionship of the Holy Ghost.
"Patient ground to flowers" - Christ turns plain ground to flowers, but we must be patient about it
"Nobler part of all the house here is the heart" - as wonderful as the human mind and body is, the noblest part of us is our hearts, and our hearts are the greatest thing we can give to our God.
"Lord of all this reveling" - God and Christ are the source of all true joy, which encompasses reveling, but reveling is poignant here because it emphasizes that communities rejoice together in the greatness of God.
"What sweeter music can we bring" (the second time) - even after we have sung this beautiful carol, we are left still yearning to express our gratitude for the joy and peace brought by Jesus Christ.