Best Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry

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• Publisher: Collins
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780007190188
• eBook ISBN:
  9780007461042
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

A collection of favourite Christmas carols, poetry and readings – a perfect Christmas gift.

This is an ideal Christmas gift, and is packed full of all of your favourite Christmas poems, carols and readings – both traditional and modern.

150 much-loved poems, carols and readings have been hand-picked, and arranged alphabetically so that they can be easily found. Each item is introduced with a brief history to the piece and its author, helpfully placing it in context.

The pieces are also accompanied by a complete set of indexes which detail first lines, themes, Bible references (where applicable) and authors so that the much-loved works are thoroughly cross referenced and can be found with ease.

Best-Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry

Adam and Eve in the garden

This passage, from Genesis 3:8–15, 17–19, describes the result of humanity’s disobedience. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the outcome was separation from God. The birth of Christ, and his death on the cross, has made a new relationship with God possible. These verses make up the first lesson of the traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge each Christmas Eve.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’

Adam lay ybounden

This carol is a traditional choice for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge and was originally included as a memorial to one of the chapel’s directors of music, Boris Ord (1897–1961), who provided the musical setting. The carol remains Ord’s only published composition. The carol was first recorded in a fifteenth-century manuscript, which also produced ‘Lullay, my liking’.

Adam lay ybounden,

Bounden in a bond;

Four thousand winter

Thought he not too long.

All for an apple,

An apple that he took,

As clerkes finden

Written in their book.

Ne had the apple taken been,

The apple taken been,

Ne had never our Lady

Abeen heavene queen.

Blessed be the time

That apple taken was;

Therefore we moun singen:

Deo gracias! Deo gracias! Deo gracias!

Anonymous

All my heart this night rejoices

Paul Gerhardt wrote this carol as a hymn-writer and preacher in the German parish of Luebben. The uplifting tone of the carol is particularly poignant when considered in light of the events in Gerhardt’s own life at the time – he had been expelled from his previous pastorate on political grounds and was still grieving the deaths of his wife and four of his five children.

All my heart this night rejoices

As I hear

Far and near

Sweetest angel voices,

‘Christ is born,’ Their choirs are singing

Till the air

Ev’rywhere

Now with joy is ringing.

Forth today the Conqueror goeth,

Who the foe,

Sin and woe,

Death and hell, o’erthroweth.

God is man, man to deliver;

His dear Son

Now is one

With our blood forever.

Shall we still dread God’s displeasure,

Who, to save,

Freely gave

His most cherished Treasure?

To redeem us, he hath given

His own Son

From the throne

Of his might in heaven.

He becomes the Lamb that taketh

Sin away

And for aye

Full atonement maketh.

For our like his own he tenders;

And our race,

By his grace,

Meet for glory renders.

Hark! A voice from yonder manger,

Soft and sweet,

Doth entreat: ‘Flee from woe and danger.

Brethren, from all ills that grieve you,

You are freed;

All you need

I will surely give you.’

Come, then, let us hasten yonder;

Here let all,

Great and small,

Kneel in awe and wonder.

Love him who with love is yearning;

Hail the star

That from far,

Bright with hope is burning.

Dearest Lord, thee will I cherish.

Though my breath

Fail in death,

Yet I shall not perish,

But with thee abide forever

There on high,

In that joy

Which can vanish never.

Paul Gerhardt (1607–76), translated by
Catherine Winkworth (1827–78)

All the days of Christmas

This poem by Phyllis McGinley, an American poet and writer for the New Yorker, takes some of the features of the perennially-popular ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and weaves them into a meditation on family and love against the backdrop of the modern festive season.

What shall my true love

Have from m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Index of Titles and First Lines
• Author Index
• Index of Bible References
• Best-Loved Christmas Carols, Readings and Poetry
• Copyright
• About the Publisher