The Poetry of Christmas

Abstract

The Victorians have a reputation for being a society invested in religious devotion and debate, yet thus far the genres of Christmas literature defy that character. Victorians readers would have had to read between the lines or turn inventive to glean scriptural messages from the Christmas books and nonfiction descriptions of Christmas customs. The poetry of Christmas, however, stands on a different footing. As a descendent of a healthy eighteenth-century tradition of devotional poetry, religious poetry came to embrace the topic of Christmas not as a renewed, nineteenth-century entity, but rather as a scriptural touchstone. While much of the poetry of Christmas expanded on older traditions of faith and the English cultural celebration, Christmas poetry and its inherent connection to Christianity caused many poets to designate this genre as a battleground in the debate about faith that had developed in a society prone to the very loud rumblings of science, Higher Criticism, and doubt. As a holiday associated with the spiritual world, leisured Victorians could do some soul searching during the liminal space of Christmas. Poetry offered a field in which Christmas celebrants could turn contemplative and introspective.