Christina Rossetti and In the Bleak Mid Winter

So I love the song with the same title but it turns out that this poem, which I’ve actually tried to read with the tune but doesn’t quite work, was written long before the song. Huh who would have known.

Christina Georgina Rossetti born in England in 1830 wrote a variety or poems but was famous for the Goblin Market and Remember. She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in the British Isles: This one, first published as ‘A Christmas Carol’ and Love Came Down at Christmas.

By the way, if you get a chance to read the Goblin Market; do it. I almost posted it for Halloween but it is a very long piece and I just didn’t think it suited at the time.

So, sit yourself in front of what ever heat source you have and enjoy.

In the Bleak Mid Winter

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.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

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.

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.

Image from Pixabay, modified by JRFC