Christmas
In The Bleak MidWinter
- Words:
- Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1872, alt.
- Music:
- Music and
- Setting:
- 'Cranham' Gustav Theodore Holst, 1906, alt.
- 1In 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 on snow,In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
- 2Our God,Heav'n cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;Heav'n and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed The Lord God Almighty,Jesus Christ.
- 3Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;Enough for Him, whom angels fall down before,Ox and ass and camel which adore.
- 4Angels and archangels may have gathered there,Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,Worshiped the beloved with a kiss.
- 5What can I give Him, 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 what can I give Him: give my heart.
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- The words are in 106 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Cranham, is in 103 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.