On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

[2] The ode was composed during a time in Milton's life when he based his understanding of religion on Scripture, but he was still influenced by myth.

According to Thomas Corns, "Quite probably, its location indicates the poet's assessment of its quality"; this consideration is significant because Humphrey Moseley, an important bookseller, was the publisher of the volume and the ode serves as an introduction to Milton's poetry.

For example, see the first stanza:This is the month, and this the happy morn / Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, / Of wedded maid, and virgin mother born, / Our great redemption from above did bring; / For so the holy sages once did sing, / That he our deadly forfeit should release, / And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.The hymnal stanzas are eight lines each, uniformly written in iambic meter.

For example, the first stanza of the Hymn:It was the winter wild, / While the Heav'n-born-child, / All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies; / Nature in awe to him / had doffed her gaudy trim / With her great master so to sympathize: / It was no season then for her / To wanton with the sun her lusty paramour.The ode with The Passion and Upon the Circumcision form a set of poems that celebrate important Christian events: Christ's birth, the feast of the Circumcision, and Good Friday.

However, Milton's poetry reflects the origins of his anti-William Laud and anti-Church of England based religious beliefs.