To warm your heart...

[Ppiman]

I know some of you enjoy poetry. Whenever Christmas comes around, I find myself thinking of this beautiful poem. I hope you enjoy it, too. It's message is deeper than its simple words suggest and Hardy's words speak directly to my own heart.

The Oxen

.

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.

‘Now they are all on their knees,’

An elder said as we sat in a flock

By the embers in hearthside ease.

.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where

They dwelt in their strawy pen,

Nor did it occur to one of us there

To doubt they were kneeling then.

.

So fair a fancy few would weave

In these years! Yet, I feel,

If someone said on Christmas Eve,

‘Come; see the oxen kneel,

.

‘In the lonely barton by yonder coomb

Our childhood used to know,’

I should go with him in the gloom,

Hoping it might be so.

.

Thomas Hardy

.

Steve

PS I had to add in a dot between each stanza as this forum does odd things with text formatting.

[Peony4575]

Lovely , thank you, I am a poetry lover.

And a happy Christmas to you and yours and my very best wishes for a healthy new year

[Ppiman in reply to Peony4575]

Thank you - I hope you and your family have a lovely Christmas, too. I’m nursing a pre-Christmas cold, unfortunately.

Have you read Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush”? It’s such a wonderful poem, too. He was a wonderful writer.

Steve

[Peony4575 in reply to Ppiman]

As part of my English Literature A level course . Wonderful indeed

Just had 3 little grandchildren aged 2, 3 and just 5 staying for the weekend all with runny noses so am guessing the cold will be here by Christmas Day ! Get well soon !

[gladliz in reply to Peony4575]

Germ factories aren't they

[Peony4575 in reply to gladliz]

Indeed ! My father used to say my children were full of microbes and now I know what he meant ! 😂

[ForensicFairy]

That’s lovely, thank you for sharing.

I go for light humour. I love this one.

A funny meme

[Ducky2003 in reply to ForensicFairy]

🤣

[gladliz in reply to ForensicFairy]

I can recommend Brian Bilston for humours poems which play wonderfully with the English language. Try finding him on Facebook or Google.

[Evaluna]

Such a gifted writer. I love his books. Merry Xmas and Happy, Healthy New Year.

[bassets]

Thank you and have a happy Christmas.

[DrBook]

Many thanks, Steve. This lovely Christmas poem was just what I needed. Your post also led me to a wonderful website that I was unaware of heretofore (LitCharts). If you're not familiar with it I'm quite sure you'll find it of interest. Christmas blessings to you and yours.

Brian

[Ppiman in reply to DrBook]

Hi Brian - I have used LitCharts for very many years. I think you have to subscribe these days to get the full articles, but it is very useful. That poems speaks directly to my own view of Christmas, "hoping it might be so". Hardy's profound insights into the human condition are wonderful.

Steve

[DrBook in reply to Ppiman]

"Hoping it might be so"! Amen and amen!

I'm not surprised that you've used LitCharts for many years. God willing, thanks to you I'll do the same.

Brian

[Vonnegut]

Once again, “liking” made it go to “unlike” so I pressed again to get it back to “like”, so really your score of “likes” is higher than recorded! I “did” Hardy for AL GCE but don’t remember that one- it was a long time ago.

[Ppiman in reply to Vonnegut]

I did read Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" on your recommendation, by the way. What a weird novel it turned out to be. It took me a while to appreciate it fully!

Happy Christmas!

Steve

[Vonnegut in reply to Ppiman]

And Happy New Year!

[Libby22]

Thanks. I'm a big Thomas Hardy fan.

[Ppiman in reply to Libby22]

I have a special place in my heart for Hardy's writing and he sits alongside two other great poets, William Blake and Philip Larkin. Like all great poets, he is able to make words sing and to say more than words should ever be able to. These lines from him are a good example of that:

"O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,

And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free –

The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me."

.

Have a lovely Christmas!

Steve

[Cavalierrubie]

What a wonderful portrayal of Christmas and how special it is. Jesus “Prince of Peace.” Peace just oozes out of his words. The joy of being humble and content is peace. Not something we have to strive for and is accessible to us all. If only mortal man didn’t conform to the world …….. Thank you. It did warm my heart but also my soul.

[Ppiman in reply to Cavalierrubie]

The best poetry does go unaccountably deep.

Happy Christmas,

Steve

[mary70]

wonderful words…

[Ppiman in reply to mary70]

Thank you. Have a lovely Christmas, Mary.

Steve

[ibuputih]

Happy Christmas and thank you for the poem. So simple and beautiful. This one is my favourite:

(Hope the link works - if not the poem is ‘Christmas’ by Sir John Betjeman)

m.youtube.com/watch?v=AyZL9...(Not working as expected?)

[Ppiman in reply to ibuputih]

Thank you so much for that. I thought I knew most of Betjeman's poems, but not that one...

.

"...And is it true? And is it true,

This most tremendous tale of all...?"

.

Steve

[wilsond in reply to Ppiman]

After Christmas I'll tell you my story of John Betjeman,priceless! 1972.

[Ppiman in reply to wilsond]

He's not a favourite poet but he did write some good ones; he always entranced me on his TV documentaries with his wit, intelligence and quietly spoken English accent. There was a repeat recently on the abandoned railway lines in the Southwest - it was fascinating, and his voice was just perfect for it. I gather from media accounts that he wasn't always quite as nice as his image suggested!

Steve

[dedeottie]

Beautiful and so true. Happy Christmas All. X

[Ppiman in reply to dedeottie]

Yes - "hoping it might be so". I have always liked Hardy's way of putting things.

Happy Christmas!

Steve

[kitttycat]

Hello, this is beautiful and heart warming, thanks for sharing. The very best to you.

[Ppiman in reply to kitttycat]

And to you, Kitty! Have a lovely Christmas.

Steve

[Ilovedogs12]

Thomas Hardy had great perception, I love his work. Thank you for sharing. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and health and happiness in 2025 x

[Ppiman in reply to Ilovedogs12]

Yes - a deep thinking man who understood the human condition better than most. His novels are equally fine, with Tess of the D'Urbervilles simply outstanding.

Happy Christmas!

Steve

[Ilovedogs12 in reply to Ppiman]

I love all his novels too, for me he is our best author and poet by far.All his novels have me captivated from the start, I've reread them several times over the years and I never tire of them. He was sensitive to the plight of others and how outside influences can change the course of someone's life to their detrement, often with no way back. The world keeps turning but his stories are still relevant today, we live in a different time but society doesn't change and there are always those who lose their way.

Thanks for sharing Steve.

[Ppiman in reply to Ilovedogs12]

I agree with your every word. Here is one of my favourite passages from Tess:

“Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive; why so often the coarse appropriates the finer thus, the wrong man the woman, the wrong women the man, many years of analytical philosophy have failed to explain to our sense of order”

Steve

[Ilovedogs12 in reply to Ppiman]

It says it all ❤️

[wilsond]

Ahh that's lovely Steve xx

[Rainfern]

My dad always read this poem to us as kids -Christmas Eve by candlelight - along with Journey of the Magi by T S Eliot and a smattering of his own wintertime poems. Thank you Steve.

[Ppiman in reply to Rainfern]

That sounds a very loving childhood!

Steve

[Rainfern in reply to Ppiman]

My dad wrote some gently profound poems in his life, but I love the haiku he wrote in his late years the best. Here’s one for Christmas:

Starlight on deep frost

- easy to imagine

the songs of angels

And one for the dream he and my mum lived out in a deep Somerset lane after they retired (not strictly haiku but he never was a stickler to rules!)

It’s called Free Range Haiku

I let out the fowls

to scratch for a new day

- singing and complaining.

If I too could sing

that early in the morning,

It would sound the same.

[Ppiman in reply to Rainfern]

Well, I have never liked - or at least been able to appreciate - haiku, but these are very good. The "Starlight" one is profound and, well - rather Hardyesque in theme, depending how one interprets the final two lines.

I so enjoy the deep feeling from reading certain poems. That haiku was of that calibre. You were lucky to have had a father like that.

Steve

[ibuputih in reply to Rainfern]

Journey of the Magi is another favourite of mine. I encountered it first at school. The Head Girl always read it at Christmas.

In latter years, having lived in Asia and the Middle East - the descriptions of the journey are so evocative and wonderful!

[Ppiman in reply to ibuputih]

I enjoy Eliot's poetry - but some is so difficult!

Steve

[ibuputih]

Oops - replied on the wrong link! That’ll teach me to try and do 3 jobs at once …