January sixth is always the date for this celebration of Christ revealed to the world through the visit of strangers from another land (Matthew 2), though most churches will move it to a Sunday. Epiphany on the church calendar dates back to the fourth century, where it celebrated the whole Nativity narrative (before Christmas became a separate event with its own date).
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929), best known for America the beautiful, wrote this Epiphany poem in 1905 and it appeared in a handful of hymnals (though apparently not since the Methodist Hymnal of 1935). As you'll see, second stanza is probably the reason for this. The "kings" are traditional rather than scriptural, though tradition has won out in this case.
The kings of the east are riding
Tonight to Bethlehem;
The sunset glows dividing,
The kings of the east are riding,
A star their journey guiding,
Gleaming with gold and gem.
The kings of the east are riding
Tonight to Bethlehem.
To a strange sweet harp of Zion
The starry host troops forth:
The golden-glaived Orion
To a strange sweet harp of Zion,
The Archer and the Lion,
The Watcher of the north:
To a strange sweet harp of Zion
The starry host sweeps forth.
There beams above a manger
The child-face of a star;
Amid the stars a stranger,
It beams above a manger,
What means this ether-ranger
To pause where poor folk are?
There beams above a manger
The child-face of a star.
Katharine Lee Bates, 1905
Tune: WALLACE (Irregular)
Clarence G. Hamilton, 1905
Eight Years Ago: Saw you never, in the twilight
Seven Years Ago: Earth has many a noble city
Six Years Ago: What star is this, with beams so bright
Five Years Ago: As with gladness those of old
Four Years Ago: O thou, who by a star didst guide
Three Years Ago: Lo! the pilgrim Magi
One Year Ago: Hail, O Source of every blessing
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