Friday, December 10, 2004

Christmas Hymns II

This was one of the second wave of Christmas songs that I learned. Less like a lullaby than the carols I'd known practically from the cradle-- "Silent Night", "Away in the Manger." More intricate musically, and a more mature message in the lyrics. Which was mostly lost on me until I became familiar with the words beyond the first verse. I never cared much one way or another for it until I learned what we now know as the second verse...but is actually the third verse of this Christmas poem written by a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts in 1849 as part of his Christmas Eve message for his flock. I love the imagery here of the "cloven sky" and the "peaceful wings unfurled."

It crossed my mind to post the now-unused second verse here, but I thought that might be cheating. It does, however, contain the meat of the message of the song, so here it is:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife,
The world hath suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled,
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not,
The love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

 

     

8 comments:

  1. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

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  2. It's very hard to answer these questions without cheating and peeking at the comments.  This is from It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, a lovely song and one of my very favorite to sing.  Looking forward to the next one.

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  3. Hark the Herald Angels Sing?

    It's a beautifu verse and seems quite apropro to our times. :-) ---Robbie

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  4. And man, at war with man, hears not,
    The love song which they bring:   I love this phrase

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  5. Where did you find the neat background? It came upon a midnnight clear.

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  6. I don't know this one off the top of my head, but it's beautiful...

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  7. I totally love Christmas songs, Lisa!  I'd forgotten all about that one.

    I love the new picture you have over there.  Such a cool idea!

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  8. very nice and I like the new look you have here and new photo on the sidebar!  You've been redecorating I see, and you did a great job!

    :-)
    ~JerseyGirl
    http://journals.aol.com/cneinhorn/WonderGirl  

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