![]() ![]() Christina Rossetti’s In the Bleak Midwinter (which would be my No 11 here) might be the best-known poem sung as a carol, but Dunbar’s contains the direct exhortation to throw all our power into singing. Success ensued and from that point on Dunbar lived off his writing until his tragically early death from tuberculosis at the age of 33. However, one schoolfriend, Orville Wright – of airplane-inventing fame – helped to provide the financial backing for Dunbar to publish his first collection of poems. Despite graduating with top grades and ambitions to be a writer, circumstances forced him to take work as an elevator operator. Born in Kentucky in 1872 to former slaves, Dunbar attended high school in Dayton, Ohio where he was the only black pupil. Christmas Carol by Paul L Dunbar Dunbar was a writer who achieved international success against all the odds. The poet’s repeated question of “is it true?”, seemingly aimed at the Christian message of the festival, moves the poem along from doubt towards a sense of divine wonder that puts the secular rituals of the season into a magnificent – albeit characteristically curmudgeonly – perspective.Ħ. Christmas by John Betjeman Betjeman was a practising Anglican, and his faith is explored in some of his poems, particularly those inspired by Christmas. This Christmas poem is a subtle discussion of the nature of faith it might be far-fetched to imagine oxen kneeling to the new-born baby Jesus, but the speaker still wants it to be true.ĥ. The Oxen by Thomas Hardy Despite his reputation as the great novelist of Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy wrote more than 1,000 poems and considered himself to be first and foremost a poet. Its popularity grew and grew, with the result that its depiction of the saint in a sleigh driven by reindeer – with all but Rudolph first named here – is credited with having the most influence on modern images of St Nicholas (or Santa Claus) across the English-speaking world.Ĭhristmas nativity scene created by workers from the National Geographic Institute (IGN) with rocks expelled from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain earlier this month. Moore had simply written it to entertain his children one Christmas Eve and never intended it to be published. Published anonymously in a New York newspaper in 1823, it was not until 1837 that a poetry editor revealed that his friend Clement Clarke Moore – a highly esteemed scholar in classical languages – was the mysterious author. A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore This is another great family poem for Christmas, but it was written under a cloud of secrecy nearly two centuries ago. This a perfect example of how Zephaniah takes on an important issue and introduces it to young people in a way that is hugely entertaining and fun.ģ. Born in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth – which he called “the Jamaican capital of Europe” – Zephaniah was a local legend by the age of 15, known for his rousing, socially conscious poetry. ![]() ![]() This poem, and the book of the same name, enjoyed stratospheric success after publication in 1994. Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah Christmas is not a merry time for turkeys either, as the British Jamaican Benjamin Zephaniah – one of our leading dub poets and children’s authors – illustrates here with characteristic humour and aplomb. In the moment evoked by the poem, the bells ring with hope.Ģ. It articulates a stirring sense of resolve in the face of sadness, the speaker determined to leave the darkness of the world behind him, and instead face the light of the future. From 1849, In Memoriam captures the loss of one of Tennyson’s dear friends, including the now immortal line “’tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”. ‘Ring out wild bells’, from In Memoriam AHH by Alfred, Lord Tennyson This Christmas will be painful for many faced with empty chairs around the dinner table.
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