DESCRIPTION:
In 1872 Christina Rossetti wrote a poem in re­sponse to a re­quest from the mag­a­zine Scrib­ner's Month­ly for a Christ­mas po­em. The poem became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Gustav Holst. Today, it is one of the best loved Christmas Carols of all time.

The first lines of the poem are beautifully crafted:

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.