In the Bleak Midwinter

Summary


"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti that opens in a frozen, silent world — earth hard as iron, water turned to stone — into which the divine unexpectedly arrives. Against this stark winter landscape, Rossetti traces the nativity scene from angels thronging the air to a mother's quiet kiss, before turning the gaze inward. The poem's final stanza poses a deeply personal question: what can one person, poor and ordinary, truly give? The answer arrives with disarming simplicity.

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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.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His mother
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.


Credits

Christina Georgina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet celebrated for her lyrical religious verse and her place among the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Written in 1872, "In the Bleak Midwinter" was later set to music by Gustav Holst and has since become one of the best-loved Christmas carols in the English-speaking world. Rossetti's ability to move from cosmic imagery to intimate human feeling in just a few stanzas is on full display here.