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Covid Carol Collage

Yesterday morning I read Harry Gilonis' "seasonal ghazal" in Janet Morley's Advent to Epiphany anthology "haphazard by starlight." In it he weaves together snippets of carols and seasonal songs into this ancient Arabic format.

Mine is much less artful, more akin to a child's pictorial collage, but it is inspired not only by Gilonis' poem but also reflecting the fact that in this period of covid, within the Methodist Church in Ireland, we are being asked to sing fewer verses of fewer carols within our traditional carol services, making for significant editorial choices. 

And then, on top of all of that with have the less than estimable Sammy Wilson MP, whose response to the latest Northern Ireland Covid restrictions, on a night when the Lord Mayor of Belfast was leading an online act of remembrance for all those lost to the pandemic, was to post a badly composed pastiche of "Hark the herald angels sing" mocking NI Health Minister Robin Swann. But then again, the "Hark the herald angels" that we sing is not quite the carol that Charles Wesley wrote. It was supposedly rewritten by George Whitefield, replacing the line with which I start... It is also clear that different carols have influenced others given the limited palate of metaphors, adjectives and adverbs used (though no-one else used the old English word Welkin), and of course local seasonal conditions (ie winter snow) have influenced many more than strict Biblical accuracy. So I am merely continuing in a fine seasonal tradition. And I hope it has more merit than the recent offering by the MP for South East Antrim.

Hark how all the Welkin rings,
Veil'd flesh, healing wings.

Snow on snow, iron-hard earth,
News of great joy, news of great mirth.

Silent night, stars, wondrous gift given.
Verily the sky is riven.

Sheep on lonely mountain steep:
Cold winter's night deep: dreamless sleep.

Cloven skies, shining throng
Sweetly their joyous strains prolong

Bleak midwinter, midnight clear
Gaily they sing words of good cheer

"Gloria in excelsis!"
Begin and never cease.

Bend joyful footsteps, bended knee.
Yeah Lord we greet Thee.

In royal David's city, little Bethlehem town
Love all lovely, love divine come down

Swaddling clothes, lully, lullay.
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay

Incarnate Deity, from highest bliss
Mother worshiped with a kiss.

Sages leave your contemplation.
Kings traverse moor and mountain.

Faithful, joyful and triumphant come
Adeste, pa rum pum pum pum pum.

Shalom

 

 

 


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