We met on 12 December, a date celebrated by clever Brian Bilston in his ‘Haiku for 12 Dec’.
It was also the eve of St Lucy’s Day which at one time, before the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, coincided with the winter solstice. John Donne’s ‘A nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, being the shortest day’ tells how the bereaved lover will remain in the dark while other lovers can look forward to the lengthening days. Susan Cooper ‘s ‘The shortest day’ concerns the Festival of Lights which Scandinavian countries celebrate on St Lucy’s Day.
Two poems concerned seasonal snow and ice; Robert Frost’s much-anthologised ‘Stopping by woods on a snowy evening’ and Jacob Polley’s grumpy ‘Jack Frost’ from this modern Cumbrian poet’s collection ‘Jack Self’, concerned with childhood and myths.
WB Yeats’ short poem ‘The magi’ is possibly ekphrastic as it seems to be responding to an old master painting. TS Eliot’s ‘The journey of the magi’ contrastingly places the wise men in a very real and harsh – and cold – world.
Thomas Hardy’s ‘The oxen’ tells of a simple country belief which the poet wishes could survive the cynicism of modern times. Another plea for the pleasure of simple things is found in Brian Bilston’s moving ‘The good old days’. A similar idea pervades TS Eliot’s ‘The cultivation of Christmas trees’, which also refers to the St Lucy tradition. ee cummings ‘Little tree’ is a much less complex but charming celebration of the Christmas tree. John Betjeman’s ‘Christmas’ begins with typical Betjeman humour but ends with an emotional reckoning with the Christmas story.
Carol Ann Duffy‘s ‘The Christmas truce’ tells of the fraternisation between enemy soldiers amid the horror of the WW1 battlefields. Apparently any repetition of this humanity was ruthlessly forbidden in the remaining years of the war.
Our final Christmassy selection paid tribute to the much-loved poet Benjamin Zephaniah who had died only a few days earlier. We enjoyed his funny but undoubtedly heartfelt ‘Talking turkeys’.
Pablo Neruda’s ‘A dog has died’ is also funny and heartfelt, a tribute to the poet’s late companion. Other poems with no relation to the current season but connected by their animal references were Ted Hughes’ intense ‘The thought fox’, Robert McFarlane’s ‘Jackdaw’ with its delightful wordplay, and William Carlos Williams’ ‘History of love 1’, in which love is expressed by collecting horse manure for grandmother.
Christina Rossetti’s ‘Sister Maude’ is an astonishingly bitter tirade, which leaves the reader to imagine what may have happened in that riven family.
Lucy Newlyn’s ‘Grove Lane in September’ vividly evokes memories of Headingley in the 1970s/80s for those of us who also lived there then.
‘Charlie Chaplin and me’ by Prartho Sereno was the Daily Rattle poem of the day for 11 December; an amusing story with a cosmic twist at the end.
Mark Grist summons up the courage to tell his boorish drinking mates that he wants ‘A girl that reads’ – not that he’s indifferent to physical attributes.
A further contribution to last month’s theme of ‘Clothes’ was Robert Herrick’s gently erotic ‘Delight in disorder’.
Lovely report, Chris, many thanks!