We turn to poems at the big moments in a year, as poetry is the language we reach for when everyday language simply isn’t enough. Great poets can articulate what most of us find impossible to put into words. And when it comes to the wonder – or dread – of Christmas, we find that there’s a poem for pretty much everything, from profound expressions of love and loss right down to the troubled ruminations of a turkey.
Poetry anthologies have always been a perfect way to discover the almost infinite variety of poems and poets. My new anthology, A Poet for Every Day of the Year is a gathering of 366 poems by 366 poets from across the globe and across time. The book travels through a calendar year. And so, in the spirit of this Guardian series, here are my top 10 Christmas poems.
1. ‘Ring out wild bells’, from In Memoriam AHH by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
This Christmas will be painful for many faced with empty chairs around the dinner table. From 1849, In Memoriam captures the loss of one of Tennyson’s dear friends, including the now immortal line “’tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”. It articulates a stirring sense of resolve in the face of sadness, the speaker determined to leave the darkness of the world behind him, and instead face the light of the future. In the moment evoked by the poem, the bells ring with hope.
2. Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah
Christmas is not a merry time for turkeys either, as the British Jamaican Benjamin Zephaniah – one of our leading dub poets and children’s authors – illustrates here with characteristic humour and aplomb. This poem, and the book of the same name, enjoyed stratospheric success after publication in 1994. Born in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth – which he called “the Jamaican capital of Europe” – Zephaniah was a local legend by the age of 15, known for his rousing, socially conscious poetry. This a perfect example of how Zephaniah takes on an important issue and introduces it to young people in a way that is hugely entertaining and fun.
3. A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore
This is another great family poem for Christmas, but it was written under a cloud of secrecy nearly two centuries ago. Published anonymously in a New York newspaper in 1823, it was not until 1837 that a poetry editor revealed that his friend Clement Clarke Moore – a highly esteemed scholar in classical languages – was the mysterious author. Moore had simply written it to entertain his children one Christmas Eve and never intended it to be published. Its popularity grew and grew, with the result that its depiction of the saint in a sleigh driven by reindeer – with all but Rudolph first named here – is credited with having the most influence on modern images of St Nicholas (or Santa Claus) across the English-speaking world.
4. The Oxen by Thomas Hardy
Despite his reputation as the great novelist of Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy wrote more than 1,000 poems and considered himself to be first and foremost a poet. This Christmas poem is a subtle discussion of the nature of faith; it might be far-fetched to imagine oxen kneeling to the new-born baby Jesus, but the speaker still wants it to be true.
5. Christmas by John Betjeman
Betjeman was a practising Anglican, and his faith is explored in some of his poems, particularly those inspired by Christmas. The poet’s repeated question of “is it true?”, seemingly aimed at the Christian message of the festival, moves the poem along from doubt towards a sense of divine wonder that puts the secular rituals of the season into a magnificent – albeit characteristically curmudgeonly – perspective.
6. Christmas Carol by Paul L Dunbar
Dunbar was a writer who achieved international success against all the odds. Born in Kentucky in 1872 to former slaves, Dunbar attended high school in Dayton, Ohio where he was the only black pupil. Despite graduating with top grades and ambitions to be a writer, circumstances forced him to take work as an elevator operator. However, one schoolfriend, Orville Wright – of airplane-inventing fame – helped to provide the financial backing for Dunbar to publish his first collection of poems. Success ensued and from that point on Dunbar lived off his writing until his tragically early death from tuberculosis at the age of 33. Christina Rossetti’s In the Bleak Midwinter (which would be my No 11 here) might be the best-known poem sung as a carol, but Dunbar’s contains the direct exhortation to throw all our power into singing. It is a joyous Christian celebration.
7. The Christmas Rose by Cecil Day-Lewis
This moving poem, showing the hope and light that is associated with Christmas, comes to us from the Anglo-Irish poet who was father of the Hollywood legend Daniel. In his early years, Day-Lewis was a Marxist who became a member of the British Communist party, and was influenced by his university friend WH Auden; but he became a much more traditional lyric writer, and an unlikely establishment figure who was awarded the role of poet laureate in 1968.
8. I Saw a Stable by Mary Coleridge
This lyrical poem focuses, brilliantly and simply, on the original meaning of Christmas. The great grand-niece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (if you were wondering), Mary did not achieve the same heights of fame as her forebear, but as many women poets were ignored or sidelined in this past, I am glad to be able to help redress the balance and celebrate her work.
9. Journey of the Magi by TS Eliot
This takes place on Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. Here, Eliot tells the story of the nativity from the unusual perspective of one of three Magi (kings) themselves, emphasising the difficulty of their journey and their feelings of alienation when presented with the birth of Christ – and an entire new faith.
10. A Christmas Poem by Wendy Cope
Christmas is not a merry time for all, as Wendy Cope makes clear in this perfectly executed poem, reproduced below. Comedic talent is as underrated in the world of poetry as it is in other art forms, but Cope is a virtuoso whose highly skilled work dazzles with irony, wit, and parody. She has been called “a jet-age Tennyson” for her pitch-perfect common touch:
At Christmas little children sing and merry bells jingle,
The cold winter air makes our hands and faces tingle
And happy families go to church and cheerily they mingle
And the whole business is unbelievably dreadful, if you’re single.
From Christmas Poems by Wendy Cope. Reproduced by permission from Faber.
A Poet for Every Day of the Year, edited by Allie Esiri, is published by Macmillan.
