"The Shortest Day" (excerpt), a Yule poem from Susan Cooper


	"The Shortest Day" (excerpt), a Yule poem from Susan Cooper

enbar

4-13-2009 12:21 PM

363 views

tags:

religion, paganism, primary_source, poetry, literature, christmas

enbar says:

I've always loved the line, "They burned beseeching fires... / To keep the year alive." According to Susan Cooper's own site, the poem was written for the Christmas Revels project, directed by John Langstaff, but it does not give a date.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/42059e47-6171-4f5a-a85c-e6c5a1d3499e/29D0505F-4392-48B6-9DB2-42F16C3F74D8/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Yule&oldid=748131" href="http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Yule&oldid=748131" style="font-size: 11px;">en.wikiquote.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Yule&oldid=748131">So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us — Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
<UL>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;"><A title="w:Susan Cooper" class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Cooper">Susan Cooper</A>, in "The Shortest Day"</LI></UL></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/29D0505F-4392-48B6-9DB2-42F16C3F74D8/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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