A Christmas Carol

 In the bleak mid-winter
 Frosty wind made moan;
Earth [stood]1 hard as iron,
 Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
 [Snow on snow]2,
In the bleak mid-winter
 [Long]3 ago.

[Our God,]2 heaven cannot hold Him,
 Nor earth sustain,
[Heaven and earth shall flee away]2
 When He comes to reign:
[In the bleak mid-winter
 A stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty --
 Jesus Christ.]2

Enough for Him whom Cherubim
 Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk,
 And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him whom Angels
 Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
 Which adore.

Angels and Archangels
 May have gathered there,
Cherubim and Seraphim
 Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
 In her maiden bliss
Worshiped the Beloved
 With a kiss.

What can I give [Him]4
 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]2 what I can I give Him, --
 Give my heart.

View original text (without footnotes)
First published in Scribner's Monthly, January 1872
¹ Trotta: "grew"
² omitted by Trotta.
³ Trotta: "Long, long"
⁴ omitted by Walton?

Input by Sharon Krebs

Authorship

by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) , "A Christmas Carol"

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Harold Edwin Darke (1888-1977) , "In the bleak midwinter"
by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) , "In the bleak midwinter" [chorus a cappella]
by Leonard J[ordan] Lehrman (1949-) , "What can I give?", op. 145, first performed 2000. [2-part canon with accompaniment]
by (Robert) Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) , "In the bleak midwinter", published 1948 [SATB chorus, strings, and piano obbligato], from Christ's Birthday, no. ?
by Michael John Trotta (1978-) , "In the bleak midwinter", published 2010, stanzas 1-2,5 [SATB chorus, piano, and oboe], Colla Voce

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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