JIM CRUMLEY: Snow, swans and a far from bleak midwinter : vi

JIM CRUMLEY: Snow, swans and a far from bleak midwinter
by Jim Crumley
© Shutterstock / Maciej Olszewski
A whooper swan.
YOU know the song of course, or at least the first verse: “In the bleak midwinter, 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 midwinter, Long ago.”
Christina Georgina Rossetti’s verse displays a poetic verve a cut above the humdrum hymn-cum-carol in the Church Hymnary. Poetry was her day job, after all. I love “Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow.” The word “snow” used five times in two lines, there’s a poet’s daring for you! And while it’s true that Hymn 50 quickly descends into the more typical Christmas nonsense of seraphim and cherubim thronging the air, that first verse is winter in a nutshell.

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