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    Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry
    Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry
    Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry
    Ebook257 pages2 hours

    Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry

    By Martin Manser

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    About this ebook

    A collection of favourite Christmas carols, poetry and readings – a perfect Christmas gift.

    This is an ideal Christmas gift, and is packed full of all of your favourite Christmas poems, carols and readings – both traditional and modern.

    150 much-loved poems, carols and readings have been hand-picked, and arranged alphabetically so that they can be easily found. Each item is introduced with a brief history to the piece and its author, helpfully placing it in context.

    The pieces are also accompanied by a complete set of indexes which detail first lines, themes, Bible references (where applicable) and authors so that the much-loved works are thoroughly cross referenced and can be found with ease.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateOct 12, 2011
    ISBN9780007461042
    Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry
    Author

    Martin Manser

    Martin Manser is a professional writer and researcher. He is responsible for ‘The Penguin Wordmaster’ and ‘The Guinness Book of Words’.

    Read more from Martin Manser

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      Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry - Martin Manser

      Best-Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry

      Adam and Eve in the garden

      This passage, from Genesis 3:8–15, 17–19, describes the result of humanity’s disobedience. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the outcome was separation from God. The birth of Christ, and his death on the cross, has made a new relationship with God possible. These verses make up the first lesson of the traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge each Christmas Eve.

      They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

      And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’

      Adam lay ybounden

      This carol is a traditional choice for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge and was originally included as a memorial to one of the chapel’s directors of music, Boris Ord (1897–1961), who provided the musical setting. The carol remains Ord’s only published composition. The carol was first recorded in a fifteenth-century manuscript, which also produced ‘Lullay, my liking’.

      Adam lay ybounden,

      Bounden in a bond;

      Four thousand winter

      Thought he not too long.

      All for an apple,

      An apple that he took,

      As clerkes finden

      Written in their book.

      Ne had the apple taken been,

      The apple taken been,

      Ne had never our Lady

      Abeen heavene queen.

      Blessed be the time

      That apple taken was;

      Therefore we moun singen:

      Deo gracias! Deo gracias! Deo gracias!

      Anonymous

      All my heart this night rejoices

      Paul Gerhardt wrote this carol as a hymn-writer and preacher in the German parish of Luebben. The uplifting tone of the carol is particularly poignant when considered in light of the events in Gerhardt’s own life at the time – he had been expelled from his previous pastorate on political grounds and was still grieving the deaths of his wife and four of his five children.

      All my heart this night rejoices

      As I hear

      Far and near

      Sweetest angel voices,

      ‘Christ is born,’ Their choirs are singing

      Till the air

      Ev’rywhere

      Now with joy is ringing.

      Forth today the Conqueror goeth,

      Who the foe,

      Sin and woe,

      Death and hell, o’erthroweth.

      God is man, man to deliver;

      His dear Son

      Now is one

      With our blood forever.

      Shall we still dread God’s displeasure,

      Who, to save,

      Freely gave

      His most cherished Treasure?

      To redeem us, he hath given

      His own Son

      From the throne

      Of his might in heaven.

      He becomes the Lamb that taketh

      Sin away

      And for aye

      Full atonement maketh.

      For our like his own he tenders;

      And our race,

      By his grace,

      Meet for glory renders.

      Hark! A voice from yonder manger,

      Soft and sweet,

      Doth entreat: ‘Flee from woe and danger.

      Brethren, from all ills that grieve you,

      You are freed;

      All you need

      I will surely give you.’

      Come, then, let us hasten yonder;

      Here let all,

      Great and small,

      Kneel in awe and wonder.

      Love him who with love is yearning;

      Hail the star

      That from far,

      Bright with hope is burning.

      Dearest Lord, thee will I cherish.

      Though my breath

      Fail in death,

      Yet I shall not perish,

      But with thee abide forever

      There on high,

      In that joy

      Which can vanish never.

      Paul Gerhardt (1607–76), translated by

      Catherine Winkworth (1827–78)

      All the days of Christmas

      This poem by Phyllis McGinley, an American poet and writer for the New Yorker, takes some of the features of the perennially-popular ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and weaves them into a meditation on family and love against the backdrop of the modern festive season.

      What shall my true love

      Have from me

      To pleasure his Christmas

      Wealthily?

      The partridge has flown

      From our pear tree.

      Flown with our summers,

      Are the swans, the geese.

      Milkmaids and drummers

      Would leave him little peace.

      I’ve no gold ring

      And no turtle dove.

      So what can I bring

      To my true love?

      A coat for the drizzle,

      Chosen at the store;

      A saw and a chisel

      For mending the door;

      A pair of red slippers

      To slip on his feet;

      Three striped neckties;

      Something sweet.

      He shall have all

      I can best afford –

      No pipers, piping,

      No leaping lord,

      But a fine fat hen

      For his Christmas board;

      Two pretty daughters

      (Versed in the role)

      To be worn like pinks

      In his buttonhole;

      And the tree of my heart

      With its calling linnet,

      My evergreen heart

      And the bright bird in it.

      Phyllis McGinley (1905–78)

      All the Days of Christmas © 1958 by Phyllis McGinley. First appeared in MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, published by Viking Press. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

      Angels, from the realms of glory

      James Montgomery was born into a peasant family in Ayrshire and, having abandoned his studies for the ministry, pursued a career as a poet. He became the author of over 400 hymns and carols. These lines first appeared in The Sheffield Iris, a journal for which Montgomery was editor, on Christmas Eve 1816. They are usually sung to the tune of the French ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’, which is also used for another familiar carol, ‘Angels we have heard on high’.

      Angels, from the realms of glory,

      Wing your flight o’er all the earth;

      Ye who sang Creation’s story

      Now proclaim Messiah’s birth!

      Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

      Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

      Shepherds, in the field abiding,

      Watching o’er your flocks by night:

      God with man is now residing,

      Yonder shines the Infant Light.

      Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

      Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

      Sages, leave your contemplations:

      Brighter visions beam afar.

      Seek the Great Desire of Nations:

      Ye have seen his natal star.

      Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

      Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

      Saints, before the altar bending,

      Watching long in hope and fear:

      Suddenly the Lord, descending,

      In his temple shall appear.

      Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

      Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

      Though an infant now we view him,

      He shall fill his Father’s throne,

      Gather all the nations to him;

      Every knee shall then bow down.

      Come and worship Christ the new-born King!

      Come and worship, worship Christ the new-born King!

      James Montgomery (1771–1854)

      Angels we have heard on high

      This carol is French in origin, having been translated from the French ‘Les anges dans nos campagnes’ by Bishop James Chadwick and first published in 1860. By then it was already an established favourite in France and Quebec. Tradition has it that in the second century Pope Telesphorus ordained that all the faithful should sing the words ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ at Christmas, hence its inclusion as a refrain here.

      Angels we have heard on high,

      Singing sweetly o’er the plains,

      And the mountains in reply

      Echoing their joyous strains:

      Gloria in excelsis Deo!

      Shepherds, why this jubilee?

      Why these joyous strains prolong?

      What the gladsome tidings be

      Which inspire your heavenly song?

      Gloria in excelsis Deo!

      Come to Bethlehem and see

      Him whose birth the angels sing;

      Come, adore on bended knee

      Christ the Lord, the new-born King!

      Gloria in excelsis Deo!

      See him in a manger laid,

      Whom the choirs of angels praise;

      Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,

      While our hearts in love we raise.

      Gloria in excelsis Deo!

      H. F. Hémy (1818–88), after James Chadwick (1813–82)

      The Annunciation

      This passage, from Luke 1:26–38, relates how Mary receives a visit from an angel and hears the news that she is to become the mother of Christ. As part of the background to the story of Christ’s birth, it is recited in churches throughout Christendom as an integral part of carol services.

      In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from

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