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.
Christina Rossetti
Orion's Cold Fire
All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
After four years at Minot, ND and thirty-six in Northern NY and Vermont, I can relate.
Yes, people living in the colder zones know exactly the feelings that poem echoes.
Indeed even growing up on the Connecticut shoreline (which has wimpy winters in comparison with say Minot) the meaning was clear. Attending College in Worcester MA made the meaning FAR more obvious.
This is a beautiful Christmas Carol. It was elegantly set by Gustav Holst (tune Cranham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Bleak_Midwinter). I have heard said he heard Ms. Rosetti recite the poem at a reading and, afterwards, asked (and nearly begged) her to let him set it to music. The poem has 5 verses but the traditional carol uses only V 1,2,4, and 5 due to content issues in V 3 (go look you won’t be singing V 3 at most churches 🙂 as it directly references Mary feeding Jesus in the only way you could in 1st century Judea). There is also a Benjamin… Read more »
There is still some life left in these old quotes. Not all the beauty has been quite extinguished from the world. You just have to go back in time before the rot set in.