Advent / Christmas Poetry

The_Riv · December 2024

A thread to share beloved poetry of the Season. I'm going to start with "Annunciation to Mary" by Rainer Maria Rilke, with translation by Mary Dows Herter Norton as included in the King's College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols leaflet from 2012. You will need to follow the link, and then click/scroll to page 5. (It was reprinted with permission back then, so to be careful of copyright I'm not copying/pasting the text below.)

Should I go ahead and mention The Oxen from the get-go? LOL.

Really love that Rilke, though. Please add an Advent / Christmas poem you love.

Nick Tamen · December 2024

For me, it would be Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio[/i], particularly the ending (Parts III and IV).

Gamma Gamaliel · December 2024

Not explicitly religious in content, but Laurie Lee's 'Winter Landscape' or 'Christmas Landscape' sends a shiver down my spine.

I rate Lee for his prose rather than his poetry and you have to take him with a pinch of salt ...

Piglet · December 2024

I'm very partial to Christmas by Sir John Betjeman. 🙂

Nenya · December 2024

U A Fanthorpe What the donkey saw and BC:AD.

cgichard · December 2024

"A cold coming we had of it . . ." T S Eliot: Journey of the Magi

Climacus · December 2024

The Nativity stanza of John Donne's La Corona.

Darda · December 2024

I only recently discovered that Betjeman also wrote an Advent poem entitled Advent 1955

Sparrow · December 2024

Nenya wrote: »

U A Fanthorpe What the donkey saw and BC:AD.

Oh yes. But so many more: The Wicked Fairy at the Manger, and the Sheepdog.

Sparrow · December 2024

Piglet wrote: »

I'm very partial to Christmas by Sir John Betjeman. 🙂

That last verse, the last two lines ...

Roseofsharon · December 2024

Oh yes! I cannot read that aloud without a catch in my voice.

I used to host a poetry group for the local U3A, and had belonged to poetry groups in both my previous U3As. I do miss the sharing of favourite poems that way, especially at this time of year. There are so many lovely Christmas poems, and such a short season in which to enjoy them. It isn't the same, reading to oneself!

RockyRoger · December 2024

Some lovely choices here. I'm always very moved when I read the 15th Century poem, 'I Sing of a Maiden', Ron Klug's 'Joseph's Lullaby' (pass the tissues, please) and of course Eliot's 'Journey of the Magi'.
This week's 'Church Times features George Herbert's 'Redemption' which I hadn't known before and found immensely moving.

Roseof Sharon is right about poems being for reading out loud and sharing.
Blessings!

Eirenist · December 2024

Thomas Ford's Advent poem which begins 'Yet if His Majesty, our Sovereign Lord Should of his own accord himself invite and say "I'll be your guest tomorrow night" How we should stir ourselves, ball and command , , , ,', Wonderful picture of preparations to greet an honoured guest in a great Jacobean house, contrasted with the reception given to the Son of God: 'We treat Him as a stranger, and as at first, yet lodge Him in a manger.' I have used it to finish an Advent sermon.