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    Poems for Christmas
    Poems for Christmas
    Poems for Christmas
    Ebook241 pages52 minutes

    Poems for Christmas

    By Judith Flanders and Gaby Morgan

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Poems for Christmas is an exquisitely produced gift anthology which is guaranteed to get anyone in the festive spirit.
    Part of the Macmillan Collectors Library series, featuring expert introductions for your favourite classics. This edition features an introduction by Judith Flanders, author of Christmas: A Biography.

    Through the generations, poets from William Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy and from John Donne to Christina Rossetti have been inspired to celebrate the Christmas season in verse. Just as we cherish our Christmas traditions now, so many of the great poets wrote beautifully about the Christmas story, magical wintry landscapes, festive traditions and making merry. And then, of course, there are the much-loved songs and carols from around the world that we still sing today, many of which are included in this enchanting anthology.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPan Macmillan
    Release dateOct 3, 2019
    ISBN9781529022988
    Poems for Christmas
    Author

    Judith Flanders

    Judith Flanders is the author of the bestselling ‘The Victorian House’ (2003) and ‘Consuming Passions’ (2006), as well as the critically acclaimed ‘A Circle of Sisters’ (2001) – a biography of Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynder and Louisa Baldwin – which was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. She is a frequent contributor to the ‘Daily Telegraph’, the ‘Guardian’, the ‘Evening Standard’, and the ‘Times Literary Supplement’. She lives in London.

    Read more from Judith Flanders

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      Book preview

      Poems for Christmas - Judith Flanders

      ourselves.

      CHRISTMAS IS COMING

      Christmas is Coming

      Christmas is coming,

      The geese are getting fat,

      Please to put a penny

      In the old man’s hat.

      If you haven’t got a penny,

      A ha’penny will do;

      If you haven’t got a ha’penny,

      Then God bless you!

      Traditional

      A Christmas Blessing

      God bless the master of this house,

      The mistress also,

      And all the little children

      That round the table go;

      And all your kin and kinsfolk

      That dwell both far and near:

      I wish you a Merry Christmas

      And a Happy New Year.

      Traditional

      Now Thrice Welcome, Christmas

      Now thrice welcome, Christmas,

      Which brings us good cheer,

      Minced pies and plum porridge,

      Good ale and strong beer;

      With pig, goose and capon,

      The best that may be,

      So well doth the weather

      And our stomachs agree.

      Traditional

      Deck the Halls

      Deck the halls with boughs of holly,

      ’Tis the season to be jolly,

      Don we now our gay apparel,

      Troll the ancient Yuletide carol.

      See the blazing Yule before us.

      Strike the harp and join the chorus,

      Follow me in merry measure,

      While I tell of Yuletide treasure.

      Fast away the old year passes,

      Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,

      Sing we joyous all together,

      Heedless of the wind and weather.

      Traditional

      We Wish You a Merry Christmas

      We wish you a merry Christmas,

      We wish you a merry Christmas,

      We wish you a merry Christmas,

      And a happy New Year.

      Good tidings we bring

      To you and your kin,

      We wish you a merry Christmas,

      And a happy New Year.

      Now bring us some figgy pudding,

      Now bring us some figgy pudding,

      Now bring us some figgy pudding,

      And bring some out here.

      Chorus

      For we all like figgy pudding,

      For we all like figgy pudding,

      For we all like figgy pudding,

      So bring some out here.

      Chorus

      And we won’t go until we’ve had some,

      And we won’t go until we’ve had some,

      And we won’t go until we’ve had some,

      So bring some out here.

      Chorus

      Traditional

      Pudding Charms

      Our Christmas pudding was made in November,

      All they put in it, I quite well remember:

      Currants and raisins, and sugar and spice,

      Orange peel, lemon peel – everything nice

      Mixed up together, and put in a pan.

      ‘When you’ve stirred it,’ said Mother, ‘as much as you can,

      We’ll cover it over, that nothing may spoil it,

      And then, in the copper, tomorrow we’ll boil it.’

      That night, when we children were all fast asleep,

      A real fairy godmother came crip-a-creep!

      She wore a red cloak, and a tall steeple hat

      (Though nobody saw her but Tinker, the cat!)

      And out of her pocket a thimble she drew,

      A button of silver, a silver horse-shoe,

      And, whisp’ring a charm in the pudding pan popped them,

      Then flew up the chimney directly she dropped them;

      And even old Tinker pretended he slept

      (With Tinker a secret is sure to be kept!),

      So nobody knew, until Christmas came round,

      And there, in the pudding, these treasures were found.

      Charlotte Druitt Cole

      The Christmas Pudding

      Into the basin

      put the plums,

      stir-about, stir-about,

      stir-about.

      Next the good

      white flour comes,

      stir-about, stir-about,

      stir-about.

      Sugar and peel

      and eggs and spice,

      stir-about, stir-about,

      stir-about.

      Mix them and fix them

      and cook them twice,

      stir-about, stir-about,

      stir-about.

      Traditional

      Christmas Plum Pudding

      When they sat down that day to dine

      The beef was good, the turkey fine

      But oh, the pudding!

      The goose was tender and so nice,

      That everybody had some twice –

      But oh, that pudding!

      It’s coming, that they knew quite well,

      They didn’t see, they couldn’t smell,

      That fine plum pudding!

      It came, an object of delight!

      Their mouths watered at the sight

      Of that plum pudding!

      When they had finished, it was true,

      They’d also put a finish to

      That poor plum pudding!

      Clifton Bingham (1859–1913)

      A Dish for a Poet

      Take a large olive, stone it and then stuff it with a paste made of anchovy, capers, and oil.

      Put the olive inside a trussed and boned bec-figue.

      Put the bec-figue inside a fat ortolan.

      Put the ortolan inside a boned lark.

      Put the stuffed lark inside a boned thrush.

      Put the thrush inside a fat quail.

      Put the quail, wrapped in vine-leaves, inside a boned lapwing.

      Put the lapwing inside a boned golden

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