Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English poet, perhaps best known in her day for the extended narrative poem Goblin Market (1862). She was also the author of a number of religious essays, notably “Called to be Saints” (1881) and “The Face of the Deep” (1893). The magazine Scribner’s Monthly asked her for a Christmas poem in 1872, and “In the Bleak Midwinter” was the result.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) wrote the tune Cranham especially for this carol, for The English Hymnal (1906). Holst is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets, which was completed in 1916, privately premiered in 1918, and came to its first full public performance in London in 1920. The tune Thaxted, from the “Jupiter” portion of The Planets, is the tune for the English patriotic hymn “I Vow to Thee, My Country,” and for my own hymn, inspired by  Psalm 103, “Almighty God Has Blessed Us” (2016), available here.

An interesting characteristic of “In the Bleak Midwinter” is the movement, in each of the last three stanzas, from the larger to the smaller, from the grand to the personal and intimate. Thus in the second stanza we move from the glory of eternity and the second coming to the rustic stable; in the third from the thronging of archangels to a mother’s kiss; in the fourth from the gifts of the Magi to a poor individual’s offer of a devoted heart.

1. 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.

2. Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

3. Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But his mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshiped the beloved with a kiss.

4. 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..

Here’s a version by Corrinne May,
performing live at Peets Coffee
in Tarzana CA