Christmas Eve with Christina Rossetti

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 theContinue reading “Christmas Eve with Christina Rossetti”

Year End With Christina

Last year I celebrated Christmas with Christina.  Of all the poets, Christina Rossetti understands the inscrutability of the winter season. I thought it was fitting to end the year 2013, with her poetry.  There is much speculation and curiosity surrounding the “secret.”   My preference is to let Christina keep her secret hidden and let theContinue reading “Year End With Christina”

Christmas with Christina

Every Christmas, I listen to In the Bleak Mid-Winter, never realizing the connection to Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelites.  That is, until recently.  Dante Rossetti’s (one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelites) kid sister, Christina, wrote the poem which was set as a Christmas carol by Gustav Holst and then by Harold Darke.  As an aside,Continue reading “Christmas with Christina”