As it is approaching Christmas we are now looking at the top ten Christmas Carols. At number 1 is In the Bleak Mid Winter, it is one of the most popular carols at St Fillan’s and was selected twice during lockdown for the St Fillan’s online Songs of Praise.
Based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti, this carol was written sometime before 1872 in response to a magazine request for a Christmas poem. The poem became recognised as a carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906, with music by Gustav Holst. The setting by Harold Darke (below) from two years later is many people’s favourite.
It was highlighted in Reflections from the pew 73, read more about it here.
Some commentators don’t like the carol with the reference to winter weather in the title and first verse is incongruous with its geographical setting in the hot climate of Judea. Another commentator asserts that Rossetti is not implying that snow literally fell in Palestine, but that the wintry conditions described are a metaphor for a “harsh spiritual landscape” experienced at the time of Christ’s birth, referring to the political oppression of Jews during the Roman occupation of Palestine.
In the bleak mid-winter 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 mid-winter Long ago.
Maybe we could also take the first verse a metaphor for our difficult times and we need Christ to come into our lives.