From Christmas Poem to Favorite Hymn

Christina Rossetti is the author of many Advent and Christmas poems that were posthumously published in her POETIC WORKS, in 1904. Her most famous, A Christmas Carol, became a favorite Christmas hymn entitled In the Bleak Midwinter after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906, with a setting by Gustav Holst (and later by Harold Darke).  

This beloved Christmas carol has been performed by choirs and soloists ever since, including the Robert Shaw Chorale, Chanticleer, Julie Andrews, Sarah Mclachlan, and most recently, James Taylor (who sings my favorite modern rendition).

Below I've posted Rossetti's poem, accompanied by some Christmas picture book covers that illustrate the text beautifully...

"IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER" 

by Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place
sufficed the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
but his mother only, in her maiden bliss,
worshiped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: GREAT BRITAIN

Greeting: Merry Christmas
St. Nicholas Tradition: "Father Christmas"
Highlighted Custom: Christmas cards & Christmas "crackers" (not the kind you eat!)

Following the intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell, Christmas celebrations in Great Britain were in decline. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution allowed workers little time for the holy days.  But Christmas celebrations began to make a comeback in the mid 1800's, in great part due to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and... Charles Dickens!

Many of the Victorian-age Christmas traditions are still practiced today.  In 1841, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, made popular the custom of decorating Christmas trees after he brought the idea to the British Isles from his native country of Germany.  Victorian trees were candle-lit and decorated with fruit, nuts, candy, and roses.

from "Godey's Ladys Book", December 1860

The first Christmas card made its appearance in the 1840's, designed by English artist John Calcott Horsely. If you love vintage Christmas postcards and heartwarming  stories, have I got the book for you...  

It's Aunt Olga's Christmas Postcards, by Kevin Major and it's truly one of my favorite Christmas treasures. Anna’s Great-Aunt Olga has collected Christmas postcards all her life (she’s ninety-five years young). Aunt Olga takes advantage of a holiday visit from her favorite niece to share her memories and collection of antique postcards - she received her first from her brother when he was a soldier during World War I - and we, as readers, get to delight in her collection too! Decked out in red, Aunt Olga is ready for fun as she teaches Anna how to write her very own Christmas rhymes. Written with warmth and slightly quirky humor, this unique story shows how sweet a loving relationship can be between a youngster and an oldster.


Finally, it was in large part due to the works of Charles Dickens, specifically his masterpiece A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, that the joys of Christmas were rekindled in Great Britain. Below is Dicken's self described "Carol Philosophy":

"a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

English poet Christina Rossetti was the author of many Advent and Christmastide poems.  Her most famous, A Christmas Carol became a favorite Christmas hymn entitled In the Bleak Midwinter after it appeared (posthumously) in The English Hymnal in 1906, with a setting by Gustav Holst (and later by Harold Darke).  It has been performed by choirs and soloists ever since, including the Robert Shaw Chorale, Chanticleer, Julie Andrews, Sarah Mclachlan, and most recently, James Taylor (who sings my favorite modern rendition). Click HERE to read my post about Christina Rossetti and listen to two beautiful settings of this hymn.

The tradition possibly most enjoyed by English children - Christmas "crackers" - was developed in 1844 by Thomas Smith, an English candy maker who visited France and saw cosaques ("crackers") there.  The French versions were sugar-coated almonds wrapped in squares of colored paper with each end tightly twisted.  Upon his return to England, Smith began making crackers that contained candy, jokes, mottoes, and riddles.  Still popular today, a cracker is placed beside each plate at the Christmas Dinner, ready for its tabs to be pulled as the anticipated "pop'' sound is followed by the emptying of its contents (trinkets, a paper crown, and riddles) by an eager child.

Illustration of children pulling a cracker
from ‘The Graphic Christmas’ 1878. [Image Source]

What's for dinner?  Turkey (first sent over by colonists from North America in the 1600's), cranberry sauce (which must still be imported from the U.S.), mashed potatoes, brussell sprouts, and a baked plum pudding. The pudding is traditionally prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples. Every member of the family takes turns to stir the pudding with a wooden spoon from east to west, in honour of the Three Kings.  A foil-wrapped coin is baked inside, for good luck.

Children send letters to "Father Christmas", which are tossed in the fireplace.  Legend has it that the smoke from them burning letters gets carried up the chimney directly to the jolly man in the red suit!  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a book about Letters from Father Christmas, that I posted HERE last year.

"Boxing Day", celebrated the day after Christmas, marks the beginning of the Christmas pantomimes (plays, such as "Cinderella" or "Peter Pan", which are performed for children).  Boxing Day was originally a public holiday on which church alms boxes, filled with donations for the poor, were opened and the money inside was distributed. Today, people still give gifts of money to servants or other people such as postal workers, police, and newspaper vendors, who serve the public during the year.

christina rossetti, poet (1830-1894)

Christina Rossetti was born in London, one of four children of Italian parents. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti. Her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, also became a poet, as well as a painter of the Pre-Raphaelite art movement.  She was educated at home and encouraged to write by her family; in fact, her teenage poems were printed by her grandfather on his own press.

Rossetti wrote a collection of verses for children in 1872.  It was titled SING-SONG and was illustrated by Arthur Hughes.  But she is best known for her ballads and her mystic religious lyrics.
Her poetry is marked by symbolism and intense feeling.

Rossetti's best-known work, Goblin Market and Other Poems, was published in 1862. The collection established Rossetti as a significant voice in Victorian poetry.

By the 1880s, recurrent bouts of Graves' disease made Rossetti an invalid, and ended her attempts to work as a governess.  She died of cancer on December 29, 1894.

WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND?
by Christina Rossetti

Watercolor by ARIS ILLUSTRATION

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER...

"Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss."

-Verse from Rossetti's poem A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Christina Rossetti is also the author of many Advent and Christmas poems, posthumously published in her POETIC WORKS, in 1904. Her most famous, A Christmas Carol became a favorite Christmas hymn entitled In the Bleak Midwinter after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906, with a setting by Gustav Holst (and later by Harold Darke).  It has been performed by choirs and soloists ever since, including the Robert Shaw Chorale, Chanticleer, Julie Andrews, Sarah Mclachlan, and most recently, James Taylor (who sings my favorite modern rendition).

Gustav Holtz version, performed by James Taylor



Harold Darke version, performed by Winchester Cathedral Choir

POETRY: "SERIOUS PLAY"

"Play is what we want to do.  Work is what we have to do...poetry is both of those things.  Robert Frost, in fact, defined poetry as 'serious play'.  Poetry is the liveliest use of language, and nobody knows more instinctively how to take delight in that playfulness than children..." (Academy of American Poets - poets.org)


The ancient Greek word for poetry (poesis) is translated "to create".  Like me, maybe you haven't really considered the definition and origin of poetry since that last literature class you took in college.  I found a comprehensive, yet brief and interesting explanation of "WHAT IS POETRY" here.


Poetry, with its rhythm and rhyme, is perfect for reading aloud, and is very easy for children to memorize. It does not always have to rhyme, but it is always about expression and emotion.  Parents and teachers need to search for fun, thoughtful, and creative poems that will set children on the road to appreciating this literary art.  (If you're interested in poetry for babies and toddlers, you can read my earlier post about Mother Goose Rhymes).


There are classic poets, such as Edward Lear, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Taylor, A.A. Milne, and Christina Rossetti, whose long-cherished works will help paint wonderful pictures on the canvas of your child's imagination...  

WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND? by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.

We can also introduce our kids to modern poets, including Jack Prelutsky, Shel Silverstein, and Tony Mitton, to name a few.  Jim Trelease comments, from his READ ALOUD HANDBOOK:  

One of poetry's strengths is its brevity. A poem is not a novel or a short story, yet it can be very revealing in its smallness--like one of those see-through Easter eggs. A poem should add up to something, a slice of life. One expert put it this way: "Unless a poem says something to a child, tells him a story, titillates his ego, strikes up a happy recollection, bumps his funny bone--in other words, delights him--he will not be attracted to poetry regardless of the language it uses."

Click here to see and read the Lulu.Poetry list of Greatest Children's Poems Ever Written.

And go to Classic Children's Poems to download free poetry for parents and teachers.

ANTHOLOGIES for ages 4 and up:
THE RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN, compiled by Jack Prelutsky.  Illustrations by Arnold Lobel.
TALKING LIKE THE RAIN, compiled by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy.  Illustrations by Jane Dyer.

ELOISE WILKIN'S POEMS TO READ TO THE VERY YOUNG, compiled and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.