Poetry Analysis: “The Christmas Tree” by Cecil Day-Lewis

Now that the Christmas season is over—December 25^th to Epiphany—the holiday decorations have come down, and it is noticeable.  And so this poem is fitting.  I heard this poem read on the The Daily Poem podcast which is a production from Goldberry Studios, hosted by Sean Johnson.  This is a wonderful podcast that you don’t have to be an expert in poetry to enjoy a poem every day.  I find Sean Johnson very knowledgeable and very likable.  Each episode I would estimate to be roughly ten minutes, so it’s easy for a quick listen or to binge on a series when you have fallen behind.  The episode for this poem can be found here.   

My analysis below will be independent of Sean Johnson’s comments, though we pretty much have the same reading of the poem.  You’ll get double insight by reading my post and listening to his podcast comments.

 

The Christmas Tree

by C. Day-Lewis

 

Put out the lights now!

Look at the Tree, the rough tree dazzled

In oriole plumes of flame,

Tinselled with twinkling frost fire, tasseled

With stars and moons—the same

That yesterday hid in the spinney and had no fame

Till we put out the lights now.

 

Hard are the nights now:

The fields at moonrise turn to agate

Shadows as cold as jet;

In dyke and furrow, in copse and faggot

The frost’s tooth is set;

And stars are the sparks whirled out by the north wind’s fret

On the flinty nights now.

 

So feast your eyes now,

On mimic star and moon-cold bauble;

Worlds may wither unseen,

But the Christmas Tree is a tree of fable,

A phoenix in evergreen,

And the world cannot change or chill what its mysteries mean

To your heart and eyes now.

 

The vision dies now

Candle by candle: the tree that embraced it

Returns to its own kind,

To be earthed again and weather as best it

May the frost and the wind.

Children, it too had its hour—you will not mind

If it lives or dies now.

 

I had never heard of Cecil Day-Lewis, not to be confused with C.S. Lewis.  Both were British, both Anglo-Irish, and both lived approximately contemporaneous with each other but I do not believe they were related.  Day-Lewis was actually a Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for the last four years of his life, and yet I have never heard of him before.  This is the one and only poem of his that I have read, and I think a very good one.

The poem has a fascinating structure, four stanzas of seven lines each (called a heptastich or septet) with a rhyme scheme of ABCBCCA.  The first and seventh lines of all four stanzas end with the word “now.”  The second through fifth lines form a quatrain of BCBC and the sixth line repeats the C sound, forming an inner quintain (five line poem).  Perhaps the most well known quintain is “To a Skylark” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Interestingly Day-Lewis also has an analogy of a bird in his poem, an oriole in the third line.  This inner quintain is then framed by the two lines ending with the repeated word “now.”  While septet stanzas are popular in English literature (Chaucer, Spenser, Herbert, and others) I could not find another example of this rhyme scheme.  Seven lines is half a sonnet, and it does have the feel of an incomplete sonnet.  Typically septets tend to allude to the mysterious or numinous, seven being the number of days of creation in Genesis.  This poem certainly does that.

The line lengths are also rather interesting.  They alternate between a short line of five to seven syllables and a long line of nine to fourteen syllables.  The first line of a stanza is always a five syllable line ending with “now,” and the last line is short line with an extra syllable or two ending with “now.”  The short lines seem to anchor the stanza lyrically while the long lines tend to unwind into a contemplative recitative.  The meter of the lines are varied and what I can only see as sprung rhythm, a natural unfixed pattern based on the number of stressed syllables per line.  I did not decompose the poem into the number of stressed syllables per line, but it would not surprise me if there was a pattern.  (If someone does that decomposing and finds the pattern, please let us know.) 

So what is this poem about?  Let’s understand the progression of thought from stanza to stanza.

In the first stanza we are presented with a decorated Christmas tree, magnificently “dazzled/In oriole plumes of flame.”  “Put out the lights now” seems to be an imperative command to shut the lights in the room so that one can fully absorb the dazzling brightness of the decorated tree, a tree that only yesterday stood in its natural environment, “in the spinney.”  “Put out the light” can also refer to the extinguished lights on the tree at the end of the poem when the holiday is over and the tree taken down.  That gives the poem a circular structure.

In the second stanza, in the “now,” with the tree dazzling inside, we are presented with the “hard” world outside with its winter hardships, where even the shadows are cold and stars are sparks blown about by the north wind.

In the third stanza, in the “now,” and again presented with the dazzling Christmas tree, we see the tree in its mystery capable of overcoming nature’s disintegrating forces, worlds withering and such.  The tree is a “phoenix in evergreen,” the phoenix being a symbol of resurrection rising from burning ashes. 

In the fourth and final stanza, the “now” is gone, the vision “dies” as does the tree as it is tossed into the outside world of frost and wind to decompose in the natural elements.  The decorations are “candle by candle” put out as the holiday has passed.  The tree “had its hour” but that hour has passed and will shortly go out of mind.

The circular aesthetic is brought out.  So the tree, like Christmas, will be over, and come next year, the “Tree” (capitalized to represent a universal, platonic tree) will phoenix like be resurrected in another tree.  The poem incorporates a tension between a “now” and a timeless moment that is re-presented before us every Christmas.  “Tree” is capitalized twice—in the second line of the first stanza and fourth line of the third stanza.  It is contrasted with the lower case “tree,” which stands for the specific tree of this specific Christmas.

This little drama is set within the cosmic context of moon and stars, fields and copses, nights and frost, shadows and north wind whirling.  These represent the forces of nature that wish to degenerate, but they also represent the mystical forces that regenerate.  That which disintegrates will also regenerate.

I believe the poem alludes to two famous Shakespearean soliloquies.  First, there is the “put out the light” allusion in Othello where just before Othello smothers Desdemona he speaks this famous soliloque.

 

Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.

Put out the light, and then put out the light:

If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,

I can again thy former light restore,

Should I repent me: but once put out thy light,

Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,

I know not where is that Promethean heat

That can thy light relume.

            Othello, Act 5, Scene 2, ll. 6-13

Here the extinguishing of light refers to death, a death that cannot be brought back to life.  The other allusion is to the “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” soliloquy from Macbeth.  Macbeth upon hearing of his wife’s death falls into this despair.

 

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.

            Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, ll. 19-28

This too is about death, and a nihilistic sense of the lack of meaning of life.  Day-Lewis’s poem takes elements from these two Shakespearean soliloquies and contrasts the nihilism of their message (Shakespeare is not a nihilist; it’s the characters of the play who are expressing their despair) with the universal hope of Christmas coming round every year.  While Desdemona’s “light” is put out, and the tree’s lights snuffed out, the Tree’s lights will not end and, indeed, will return.  While the “lighted fool” of Macbeth will “strut and fret its hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more,” and the light of the “tree” will extinguish, the light of the “Tree” will return.

The central theme of Day-Lewis’s poem I think can be found in the third stanza:

 

 Worlds may wither unseen,

But the Christmas Tree is a tree of fable,

A phoenix in evergreen,

And the world cannot change or chill what its mysteries mean

To your heart and eyes now.

The “fable” is not referring to a false story but alludes to what is always true.  The Christmas Tree is always true because Christmas will return and a new tree will be put up. 

Here are some of my favorite lines from the poem.  From the first stanza: “Look at the Tree, the rough tree dazzled/In oriole plumes of flame/Tinselled with twinkling frost fire, tasseled/With stars and moons.”  From the second stanza: “In dyke and furrow, in copse and faggot/The frost’s tooth is set;/And stars are the sparks whirled out by the north wind’s fret/On the flinty nights now.”  I already gave that key sentence from the third stanza, and from the fourth stanza we have this: “the tree that embraced it/Returns to its own kind,/To be earthed again and weather as best it/May the frost and the wind.”

Sean Johnson did make one observation I missed.  The “oriole plumes of flame” in the first stanza connect with the rising phoenix of the third stanza.  The oriole is a bird plumed in black and orange, and so can seem like a bird in flames.  I really appreciate that given that in baseball I am a Baltimore Orioles fan.

There is an audio clip of Cecil Day-Lewis reading this poem himself.  I hope you enjoy it.

 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  Until next year, keep Christmas in your heart and before your eyes now.

Solemnity Meditation: The Magi

On this second Sunday of Christmas, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.  Who were these strange men—the Gospel does not say they were kings—who followed a star to baby Jesus?  Well I had four blog posts on the reading of Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s book, The Mystery of the Magi.  If you really want to know who these mysterious men were—not the fable of Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior—but the real history, read my posts.  Here is blog post #4 on Fr. Longenecker’s book, and from there are links to Posts one, two, and three.  The real history is more astonishing than the legend. 

However, Matthew’s spiritual significance is just what epiphany means.   Epiphany is a revelation of God, a theophany, and here the Magi reveal to the world that baby Jesus is the Christ, King of the Jews.

 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,

in the days of King Herod,

behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,

“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his star at its rising

and have come to do him homage.”

When King Herod heard this,

he was greatly troubled,

and all Jerusalem with him.

Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,

he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,

for thus it has been written through the prophet:

And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

since from you shall come a ruler,

who is to shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod called the magi secretly

and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.

He sent them to Bethlehem and said,

“Go and search diligently for the child.

When you have found him, bring me word,

that I too may go and do him homage.”

After their audience with the king they set out.

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,

until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

They were overjoyed at seeing the star,

and on entering the house

they saw the child with Mary his mother.

They prostrated themselves and did him homage.

Then they opened their treasures

and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

they departed for their country by another way.

~Mt 2:1-12

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant as usual does a thorough of explaining the historical and biblical significance of the Epiphany.

 

Fr. Geoffrey gives a handful of theories of where the Magi came from but none of them agree with Fr. Longenecker’s research.  I would go with Fr. Longenecker. 

Now for a sermon on the spiritual significance of the epiphany, let’s turn to Jeff Cavins.

 

It occurs to me that the light given off by Christ shines through the Magi.  Let the light of Christ shine through you.  Let your person be a manifestation of Christ, an epiphany to the world.

We don’t see much of how the Magi are transformed by their visit, but the poet T.S. Eliot speculates on how one particular Magus (singular for Magi) is transformed in his great poem “The Journey of the Magi.”  I provided a detailedanalysis of the poem here if you wish to read and understand this great work of poetry.    

 

Solemnity Meditation: “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

 

Instead of a hymn this week, I am going to provide a reading by someone named Arthur L. Wood of T.S. Eliot’s he Journey of the Magi.” 

 

I selected this clip since it provided the words, but that is also an excellent reading.

Solemnity Meditation: The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

January 1^st is celebrated as a religious holiday either to commemorate Christ’s circumcision or to commemorate His Blessed Mother as the Mother of God, the Theotokos.  From Wikipedia:

The Second Vatican Council stated: "Clearly from earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honoured under the title of Mother of God." and at an early stage the Church in Rome celebrated on 1 January a feast that it called the anniversary (Natale) of the Mother of God. When this was overshadowed by the feasts of the Annunciation and the Assumption, adopted from Constantinople at the start of the 7th century, 1 January began to be celebrated simply as the octave day of Christmas, the "eighth day" on which, according to Luke 2:21, the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus.

 

In the 13th or 14th century, 1 January began to be celebrated in Rome, as already in Spain and Gaul, as the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity, while still oriented towards Mary and Christmas, with many prayers, antiphons and responsories glorifying the maternity of Mary. Pope John XXIII's General Roman Calendar of 1960 removed the mention of the circumcision of Jesus and called 1 January simply the Octave of the Nativity.

There is even more to the history, which you can read for yourself.  Today’s Gospel reading:

 

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, 

and the infant lying in the manger.

When they saw this, 

they made known the message 

that had been told them about this child.

All who heard it were amazed 

by what had been told them by the shepherds.

And Mary kept all these things, 

reflecting on them in her heart.

Then the shepherds returned, 

glorifying and praising God 

for all they had heard and seen, 

just as it had been told to them. 

 

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, 

he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel 

before he was conceived in the womb.

~Lk 2:16-21

It is interesting that the shepherds “went in haste” where Luke uses the same word as in just the previous chapter where Mary “went in haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

Here is a wonderful homily from Fr. James McCurry OFM Con of the Companions of St. Anthony, a Franciscan Friar Conventional association.  (Someday I will figure out the various divisions of the Franciscans, but it always escapes me.) 

The homily was delivered in 2021, so don’t be thrown by his best wishes for the new year of 2021.  It is now 2025!

Now for a second homily by another Franciscan, Fr. Terrance of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  This is a little longer but there is a wealth of knowledge here.

My, my two Franciscans highlighted by a Lay Dominican.  What is the world coming to.  Peace might just ring out…lol. 😋

I love Fr. Terrance.  I have been trying to get one of his homilies into one of these Sunday Meditations ever since I learned of him a little over a year ago.  He is extremely smart.  Notice he even quotes a Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas at the 9:33 mark where Fr. Terrance provides Aquinas’s definition of love: “love is to will the good of the other.”  (You can read about Aquinas' definition of love in this Word on Fire article by Dr. Tom Neal.)  Fr. Terrance also mentions the Sub tuum praesidium the third century papyrus fragment with the earliest Marian prayer. 

 

Solemnity Meditation: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”

 

For today’s hymn, what better than the Sub tuum praesidium in an ancient Gregorian chant, performed here by the sacred music group, Floriani. 

 

Here are the lyrics in Latin:

 

Sub tuum praesidium

confugimus,

Sancta Dei Genetrix.

Nostras deprecationes ne despicias

in necessitatibus,

sed a periculis cunctis

libera nos semper,

Virgo gloriosa et benedicta

Here is the English translation.

We fly to thy protection,

O Holy Mother of God;

Do not despise our petitions

in our necessities,

but deliver us always

from all dangers,

O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

You may recognize fragments of the prayer in the more contemporary (only 500 years old!) Memorare prayer.  

Happy New Year!

Sunday Meditation: Feast of the Holy Family

Merry Christmas.  Again!  It is still Christmas season, and how appropriate that the first Sunday after Christmas Day, the birth of our Lord and Savior, we celebrate the family through the invocation of the Holy Family.  I carry four religious medals on a chain on my chest, and one of them is that of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Jesus is depicted as a boy and stands in front of His parents.  It must be alluding to today’s Gospel passage.

 

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast

of Passover,

and when he was twelve years old,

they went up according to festival custom.

After they had completed its days, as they were returning,

the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,

but his parents did not know it.

Thinking that he was in the caravan,

they journeyed for a day

and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,

but not finding him,

they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the temple,

sitting in the midst of the teachers,

listening to them and asking them questions,

and all who heard him were astounded

at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him,

they were astonished,

and his mother said to him,

“Son, why have you done this to us?

Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”

And he said to them,

“Why were you looking for me?

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

But they did not understand what he said to them.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth,

and was obedient to them;

and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor

before God and man.

~Lk 2:41-52

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant outdoes himself with explaining this passage.  It is outstanding.

That is the exegesis homily.  Now for the significance homily I want to provide this from Fr. Peter Marsalek of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, abbreviated as SOLT. 

I had not known of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity before.  I had seen SOLT, but I did not know what it stood for.  Their website says they were founded in 1958 and their stated charism is “Disciples of Jesus through Mary, living in Marian-Trinitarian communion, serving on ecclesial family teams in areas of deepest apostolic need.”  Headquartered in Corpus Christi, Texas but founded by Fr. James Flanagan, within the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, SOLT includes priests, religious brothers and sisters, and even a lay association.  It sounds like a wonderful order.  Fr. Peter gave a great homily.

 

Sunday Meditation: “Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

 

For today’s hymn, I’m going to go off the beaten path to a song I have never heard, “Lord, I'm Amazed (The Holy Family Song).” The song was presented by Country House Media, and I have no clue who they are or whether they wrote and performed the song. 

 

It’s a really lovely song and they provide the lyrics for you at their channel:

 

Son of God, You became man

Born of a woman conceived without sin

Mary entrusted with hands full of grace

To hold our Messiah

Lord, I'm amazed.

 

Son of Man, come down from heaven

Given a father of highest honor

Joseph entrusted with hands full of faith

To teach how to labor

Lord, I'm amazed.

 

O, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

So pure and holy, image of love

A family entrusted with hearts set ablaze 

To guide us forever

Lord, I'm amazed.

 

They seem Catholic, but even that I’m not totally sure.  I love this little song!