Tag Archives: Christmas

The Constellated Sounds of Bells

By Robin Bates | Published: December 26, 2015

First Sunday after Christmas Sewanee, Tennessee, where I spend each Christmas, is a great place for bells and chimes. There is the 56-bell carillon in All Saints’ Chapel—once one of the largest in the world although probably no more—and the single Otey Parish bell. There are also the bells in Breslin Tower, which strike the […]

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Our Christmas Owes Much to Walter Scott

By Robin Bates | Published: December 23, 2015

While Charles Dickens can be credited with resurrecting Christmas, Sir Walter Scott paved the way in “Marmion” with his depiction of Christmas and pre-Christmas banquets.

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Tell of Winter’s Tales and Mirth

By Robin Bates | Published: January 1, 2015

Robert Herrick’s “New Year’s Gift” urges us to celebrate fully the twelve days of Christmas in the same spirit as that which he urges young virgins to gather their rosebuds while they may.

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Joy Shall Be Yours in the Morning

By Robin Bates | Published: December 26, 2014

Kenneth Grahame has a particularly beautiful Christmas story in “Wind in the Willows.”

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The Minstrels Played Their Christmas Tune

By Robin Bates | Published: December 25, 2014

William Wordsworth celebrates Christmas was a poem about minstrels singing Christmas carols.

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The Divine Enters thru Imagination’s Holes

By Robin Bates | Published: December 24, 2014

If Christmas is about the entrance of the divine into the human, then works of the imagination are always filled with the Christmas spirit.

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Dickens Returned Christmas to Its Roots

By Robin Bates | Published: December 23, 2014

Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” returned the Christmas celebration to its medieval folk roots.

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The Quest of the Marvelous Tree

By Robin Bates | Published: December 12, 2014

In this mystical Scott Bates poem, the Christmas tree becomes a magical key that unlocks the darkness.

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The Animals Are Trying to Warn Us

By Robin Bates | Published: December 6, 2014

Scott Bates invokes “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” in this Nativity poem.

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