John Milton (1608–1674) Poems, &c. upon several occasions...both English and Latin, &c. compos’d at several times: with a small tractate of education to Mr. Hartlib. (London: Thomas Dring, 1673). Ee.4.15, p.1.
‘On the morning of Christ’s Nativity’ is placed first in Milton’s volume of early poems, in both 1645 and 1673. It probably held special significance for the poet, as the first major work that he composed after his landmark twenty-first birthday. It announces itself as a hymn composed at daybreak on Christmas morning 1629, ‘a present to the Infant God’. The ode combines poetic prophecy with Milton’s brand of reformist politics.