In the Bleak Midwinter

I know Christmas is over, but after 26+ inches of snowfall, there are few limits to where one’s mind can "drift". Surfing the net during the storm, I ran across the results of a poll of 27,000 FM radio listeners to determine the listening public’s favorite Christmas Carols. Outdistancing Silent Night by almost 2 to 1 was In the Bleak Midwinter. Although I was vaguely familiar with that carol, something told me the poll was not taken in Cleveland (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) or Nashville (Grand Ole Opry). Indeed, after a bit more reading, it seems the poll was British in origin.

The song was written by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-94). Christina was born in England into a well-educated and artistically refined Italian family. Her father, Gabriele, was a Professor of Italian at King’s College in London. Her brothers, Dante Gabriel and William Michael, were among the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters, poets and critics, which gave birth to a 19th Century English art movement of the same name. The Pre-Raphaelites protested the sterile, hyper-precise and materialistic themes of Victorian art by returning to the simplicity and freedom of the medieval era. It was a quasi-Christian art movement.

Christina often modeled for the brotherhood, but she was also an accomplished poet in her own right. A devout member of the Anglican Church, she published three books of poetry and four books of devotions. In the Bleak Midwinter was actually published in a book of poetry ten years after her death by her brother, William. It first appeared as a hymn in The English Hymnal (1906).

The setting is based in an old literary tradition advanced by John Milton that at the time of Christ’s birth, the land was covered with pure white snow. The Bible, of course, tells us nothing of snow or even wintertime. Nevertheless, the image of winter’s bleakness is an apt metaphor for a desolate world (or, for that matter, a desolate life) that desperately needs to know the vitality that only Christ can bring.

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 give Him: give my heart.

by Christina Georgina Rossetti