Learning about Christmas Poems

You think you everything there is know about Christmas poems, and then you find out you don’t.

Until fairly recently, it was believed that the most famous Christmas poem of all – A Visit from St. Nicholas – was written by poet Clement Clark Moore (1779-1863). Later scholarship has suggested the real author to be Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828), a farmer, surveyor and justice of the peace in New York who joined the Revolutionary Army in 1775.

What we do know for certain is that Moore read the poem to his children for Christmas in 1822, and it was published anonymously in 1823 in the Troy (NY) Sentinel. The Sentinel editor did not know who the author was, only that it had been sent anonymously to him in the mail. And we know this poem, more than any other account, fixed forever many of the characteristics attributed to Santa Claus. The poem was published in many publications (copyright laws being what they were), until a bound and illustrated version appeared in 1848.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Artwork by John A. Hows from Christmas In Art And Song. New York: The Arundel Printing and Publishing Company, 1879.

Poetry at Work: Clement Moore and the Work of St. Nicholas

Over about 25 years in the 19^th century, three events helped create the Christmas holiday celebration we know today. One was Charles Dickens and his series of Christmas stories, beginning with A Christmas Carol. Second was Queen Victoria’s embrace of the Christmas tree as a holiday tradition. But before both of those, and across the Atlantic, was a poem.

Clement Moore, the son of a clergyman and soon to become a professor at a theological seminary, wrote a poem for his children in 1822. And he recited it to them. Word spread, and the following year “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published in a newspaper. We know better by its first line, “’Twas the night before Christmas.” The poem became widely known and included in anthologies, volumes of poetry, holiday publications, and newspaper articles. Various versions of the poem have been produced over the years; one popular one for those of us born and raised in New Orleans and south Louisiana is The Cajun Night Before Christmas, which I can still be compelled to read aloud by my family, complete with Cajun accent, which I don’t have but can imitate fairly well (I will admit to being one fourth Cajun from a genetic perspective).

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.