"In the Bleak Midwinter:" A Reading of Rossetti's Carol

"Winter in the Ozarks" by R. Newton, 2008

In one of Rossetti's best known poems* that is also a beloved Christmas carol, Rossetti imagines that it was against the backdrop of “the bleak midwinter” that the ultimate transcendent truth was displayed in the birth of Christ.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” seems indicative of Rossetti’s poetic vision on a whole, encompassing her ideas about art and faith. Here, she uses the physical setting of winter (supposing that Christ was indeed born in December) to correspond with the spiritual state of man in the fall from grace.

The world is bleak and dark and cold, and into this scene comes the Light of the world, illuminating mankind’s existence. In her rendering, Rossetti portrays the humble circumstances into which the King of Kings “comes to reign.” It is as if the material “stable place” and a “mangerful of hay” where Jesus is born are viewed as representations of His own earthly tabernacle.

In this context, it becomes easy to see the world as a whole as that “sacramental universe” to which Ruskin refers. Rossetti, in pointing out the significance of the physical setting for the Incarnation, does function in the role of prophet, giving readers a vision of God’s nature as a Servant of His people that helps us see the humility with which we should approach Him.

When the poet ponders what it is she can give the Christ child, she concludes that, poor as she is, the best gift will be her heart. Of course, this is what God desires of each and every one of His children: a place in our hearts.

And this place for the Truth in our hearts is something the poets-as-prophets such as Christina Rossetti help to evoke.


*To read the complete text of "In the Bleak Midwinter," see Poetry Foundation. To listen to an instrumental arrangement of the carol, try this one by Loreena McKennitt or this one by the Kings College Choir at Cambridge.

Works Cited

Harrison, Antony H. Christina Rossetti in Context. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Packer, Lona Mosk. Christina Rossetti. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963.
Christina Rossetti: An Overview. Victorian Web, 2009.