In the Bleak Midwinter

Music by Gustav Holst

first verse by Christina Rosetti, slightly altered

Additional verses by Laura Deal Raeder

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind makes moan.

Earth stands hard as iron, water like a stone.

Snow has fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow.

In the bleak midwinter, it is ever so.

Darkness now surrounds us as the nights grow long,

Yet we fill the night time with our hopeful song.

Winter's cold won't reach us here, where we light our fire,

As we burn the old year on its funeral pyre.

Now the new year beckons, even in this night.

Soon the days will lengthen, and our hearts grow light.

Hope will grow within us as we look ahead,

And we see that spring wakes out of winter's bed.

Light will follow darkness, as the earth turns round,

Sunlight follows moonlight, thawing frozen ground.

So our lives renew with every dawning day,

And with every new year, blue skies follow gray.