Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Carol: "In the Bleak Midwinter"

In the 19th and early 20th centuries newspapers and magazines regularly carried rhyming poetry, and many well-known poems were first published in the press.   

The words to one of our beautiful carols were submitted in 1872 by the English poet Christina Rossetti as a Christmas poem. Few carols have captured the quiet heart of Christmas more movingly than this song.  

Like many carols written in northern climates, winter is described as cold and bleak, a land of ice and snow. But despite this geographical disconnect from the climate of the Middle East, we understand the poet's reasons for setting the birth of our Savior in such a "bleak midwinter." Listen to the words – and the theology – in this beautiful carol:

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, 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.

Enough for him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk,
And a mangerful of hay:
Enough for him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel 
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air –
But only his mother
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