In the Bleak Midwinter: Advent and Christmas with Christina Rossetti

by Rachel Mann

Framed by her most famous poems, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and ‘Love Came Down at Christmas’, this daily devotional explores Advent and Christmas through the poetry of Christina Rossetti. As both a poet of the first order and a leading 19th century Anglo-Catholic, Rossetti’s rich and wondrous faith provides an inspiring seasonal companion.

For each day there is a poem with a reflection that draws on Rossetti’s writings, such as her devotional journal and biblical commentary, encompassing a rich variety of themes:

• 'Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone' – setting out on the Advent journey, temptation, failure and restoration.
• Heaven and earth shall flee away, when he comes to reign’ – preparation, longing, desire for God, renunciation and need.
• ‘Enough for him, whom Cherubim worship night and day’ - rejoicing and repentance, delight in God’s mercy and grace.
• ‘Angels and Archangels may have gathered there’ – Annunciation, promise, new life and God’s abundance.
• ‘What can I give him, poor as I am?’ - birth, innocence, vulnerability and wonder.
• ‘Love Came Down’ - God’s love and grace in a violent world.

Genres: Poetry, Christmas, Religion, Nonfiction

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2019

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Rachel Mann is a British Anglican priest, poet and feminist theologian. She is a trans woman who writes, speaks and broadcasts on a wide range of topics including gender, sexuality and religion.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today marks 189 years since poet Christina Rossetti’s birth in 1830. You could hardly find better reading for Advent than poet–priest Rachel Mann’s new seasonal devotional, which journeys through Advent and the 12 days of Christmas via short essays on about 40 Rossetti poems.

If your mental picture of Rossetti’s work is, like mine was, limited to twee repetition (“Snow had fallen, snow on snow, / Snow on snow,” as the title carol from 1872 goes), you’ll gain a new appreciation after reading this. Yes, Rossetti’s poetry may strike today’s readers as sentimental, with a bit too much rhyming and overt religion, but it is important to understand it as a product of the Victorian era.

Mann gives equal focus to Rossetti’s techniques and themes. Repetition is indeed one of her main tools, used “to build intensity and rhythm,” and some of her poems are psalm-like in their diction and emotion. I had no idea that Rossetti had written so much – and so much that’s specific to the Christmas season. She has multiple poems entitled “Advent” and “A Christmas Carol” (the technical title of “In the Bleak Midwinter”) or variations thereon.

The book’s commentary spins out the many potential metaphorical connotations of Advent: anticipation, hope, suffering, beginnings versus endings. Mann notes that Rossetti often linked Advent and apocalypse as times of change and preparation. Even as Christians await the birth of Christ, the poet seems to say, they should keep the end of all things in mind. Thus, some of the poems include surprisingly dark or premonitory language:

The days are evil looking back,
The coming days are dim;
Yet count we not His promise slack,
But watch and wait for Him. (from “Advent,” 1858)

Death is better far than birth,
You shall turn again to earth. (from “For Advent”)

Along with that note of memento mori, Mann suggests other hidden elements of Rossetti’s poetry, like desire (as in the sensual vocabulary of “Goblin Market”) and teasing mystery (“Winter: My Secret,” which reminded me of Emily Dickinson). Not all of her work is devotional or sweet; those who feel overwhelmed or depressed at Christmastime will also find lines that resonate for them here.

Mann helped me to notice Rossetti’s sense of “divine time” that moves in cycles. She also makes a strong case for reading Rossetti to understand how we envision Christmas even now: “In some ways, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ offers the acme of our European cultural representations of this season.”

(I also reviewed Mann’s poetry collection, A Kingdom of Love, earlier in the year.)


Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am very disappointed in this book, and apparently should have done more research before getting it. Our poet for this term in school is Christina Rossetti so I thought this would be a perfect companion, where I can read the kids a poem of hers every day, and read the little reflection on it to myself. In actuality the reflection part was just awful. The author is obsessed with isms (feminism, euro-centrism, consumerism), talking about Rosetti simply on the context of her being a Victorian woman, and language like “people of faith” and “s/he” which are simply clunky and bad writing. Also, if you as the author are endlessly repeating that these poems may be taken to be sentimental/saccharine/kitsch but they’re really not, then you’re actually convincing me of the opposite because you feel like you have to work so hard to get me to believe it. Consider this: what if you just wrote about the poems without needing to use lenses through which to see them? A novel idea, I’m sure.

I’m giving this a bonus star for the poems, but even the poems are not my favorite.

[Marieke Desmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a treat to journey through Advent with Christina Rossetti and Rachel Mann. I found the selection of poems intentional and well curated and the exposition often interesting, sometimes a little overbearing. Overall, a really lovely companion for Advent.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 stars*

Highly recommend! Especially those who are a part of or interested in a more overtly liturgical tradition.

[Steph De Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of daily readings for the Advent and Christmas seasons, each of which consists of a Rossetti poem selected by Rachel Mann and accompanied by a brief reflection. Mann's selections are well-considered, her reflections are contemplative and full of warmth, and the poems themselves have a wonderfully wintry atmosphere that is perfect for the season. My favourite feature of Mann's reflections is the fact that she combines her meditations on the way in which the themes and content of the poems evoke an understanding of the poet's faith and of God's love with a more scholarly literary criticism.

Nonetheless, I didn't love this book, largely because I now realise that, with the exception of the titular poem, "Goblin Market" and one or two others, I'm not as enamoured of Rossetti's poetry as I thought I would be. I understand that she has quite a large oeuvre, so I'm not sure if this feeling reflects Mann's particular selections or Rossetti's style more generally. I'd certainly be willing to give her another chance; "In the Bleak Midwinter" is my favourite Christmas carol, so Rossetti will always have a place on my bookshelves and reading list.

[Karoline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not precisely the target audience for this book - I have enough theological differences with the author/compiler that I find myself picking my way through her theological comments with some effort - and I'm not an avid Rossetti fan (with several wonderful exceptions). Nevertheless, there were some lovely insights, and I enjoyed the chance to spend extended time with just one poet. I thought Mann might have served Rossetti better if she was a bit less eager to mediate between Rossetti and a reader whom she presumes is ready to criticize Rossetti on the grounds of contemporary concerns (e.g. Eurocentrism, sentimentality, implicit biases). But . . . Mann's presumed reader is apparently one who is anxious for that mediation, so I endeavored to appreciate that she's willing to go to bat for these poems and celebrate their craft, their faith, their surprises, and their meditative riches.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose to read this as an advent practice despite not being particularly religious nor particularly good at poetry. I treated it as a daily poetry practice starting on 1 December, as an advent calendar.

I kept it up for 15 days and then my daily routine got disrupted by visitors, travel, etc. so I did not finish.

The selection of poems was interesting and I enjoyed many of them. I tried to read them aloud which seemed to be a good practice for me.

I also appreciated the context and explanation provided by Mann to situate the selections in the liturgical season and in the context of Rossetti's theological and historical context.

I will probably try to do this practice again next year.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not do a deep and thorough reading. This year was a skimming of this book during Advent. But what I read, I loved. I hope to incorporate this annually into my personal advent devotions. I wouldn’t use as a family devotional, as Ms. Mann has lots of words. I did appreciate her perspectives, as a fellow sister-in-Christ who practices her faith a bit differently. She made me think and there is definitely good heart-work with the Holy Spirit that could be born out of time pondering the poetry and essays.

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a read a number of poems by Christina Rossetti that are now some favorites so I was really looking forward to reading this book. This book fascinated me. I had never read any of the poems that were in the book so like with all great poetry, I had to read each of the poems at least 2-3 times to begin to understand its meaning. Therefore, it was a little bit of a struggle to get through the book, but I did discover quite a number of new "gems".

[Jj · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very satisfying accompaniment for Advent and Christmas. Christina Rossetti was a clever and gifted poet with a talent for illustrating differences in secular and sacred time concepts.
Rachel Mann is highly skilled in making Rossetti's poems accessible to 21st Century readers, not least by highlighting the differences between now and Rossetti's time in the use of exclusive / inclusive gender language.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to get into this book, but reading it each night through Advent felt dutiful more than spiritually nourishing. I found many of the author’s reflections / critical notes very interesting and was often leaning on her more than I want to admit to unpack the poems. The poetry on its own fell flat for me - at least in this season.

[Mary Camille Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

practice, one poem each day to ground me, and really appreciated Rachel Mann’s thoughtful, enthusiastic reflections. Comparing Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market” to our culture’s relentless, seductive invitation to “come buy, come buy” helped me find my balance between the siren song of “cultural Christmas” in a consumerist society and the spiritual call of Advent.

[Dylan Parry Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good slow Advent read reflecting on Rossetti's poetry.

I'm not a huge fan of Rossetti's work, it is a little flowery for my taste on the whole. However, Mann's treatment here brings out themes and reflections that make great Advent and Christmas reflections.

[Jody Stowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving this set of reflections taking me through Advent and into Christmas. Rossetti’s poetry is rich and rewarding.

[Kyndra Lemke]

I did not enjoy this book near as much as I thought I would

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't make it all the way through but I really enjoyed the poetry I read. I don't love everything written by Rachel but some of it was helpful to understand the poetry.

[Rachel Bonnington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this, my knowledge of Rossetti was limited to 'In the Bleak Midwinter', which remains one of my favourite Christmas carols. With a poem a day from Advent Sunday to the Epiphany, with a postscript for the feast of Candlemas and an appendix full of additional poems to be read throughout the season, Rachel Mann shows us that there is so much more to Rossetti's poems, both secular and devotional, and even helps the reader to find something new in the familiarity of the words we sing each year:
'...as we encounter the Advent promise and the Christmas gift we only ever hold a partial vision of the World-Yet-To-Come, the Kingdom. We are called to speak of it, but carefully, discreetly, and tenderly. It is a vision shaped through God's disturbing, wondrous and comforting time and space, which defines all in all, and ultimately calls us to make a response, at once corporate and also personal:
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.'

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachel Mann has written a couple of books now for folk to use as study guides during Christian festivals. The first one, “From Now On” - based on the film “The Greatest Showman” - I used with delight during Lent 2019. This second book, based on the poetry of Christina Rossetti, came out for Advent 2019.
What do you get: a poem for every day starting the day before Advent Sunday, and going on to Epiphany, plus an extra one for Candlemas because that’s the official Church end to Christmas. There are also a bundle of other Rossetti poems in case Advent is longer than in 2019, because #ChurchCalendar.
You also get Mann’s commentary on these. This commentary is spiritual and feminist (not that the two things are contradictory nor at odds with each other... indeed some might say the two go hand in hand!) and we get insights into some of the scholarship behind Rossetti’s poems as well as some personal reflections. These are good, and will get you thinking about a pile of things getting you out of the daily grind and into a more spiritual mode.
This book is best read with a pencil to hand both to annotate the poems, and also to pick out insights from Mann. I found it very useful to keep me focused on the upcoming purpose to the holiday during a busy teaching term.
I was “umming” and “erring” about four or five stars, and I have come down to a four star because whilst doing the poems, the commentary and then my own notes for #adventbookclub I would have liked a point of focus for members of a group to discuss. Book discussions can end up being nebulous without one, and people will merely opine disparate views which can give few touching points for others. That said, a skilled leader (with time...) might prepare this before issuing the poems! But it would have been nice, and made the book perfect, to have a line or two of “Reflect on [this]. What makes you [do that]? How can you [do an action]?”
So... the book would need a little preparation for group work, but is good for private study. Spending 30 minutes not watching trashy telly reading Rossetti and having the wise words of Rachel Mann in your ear at the same time is a good way to do Advent and prepare for Christmas.

[Tracey Agnew · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Bleak Midwinter has been my favourite Christmas carol for as long as I can remember and so I approached this advent/Christmas book based on the poems of Christina Rossetti with some excitement. Rachel Mann, the author fights valiantly to bring a new persepective to a poet who at times seems very Victorian! Mann shines a light on the intellectual and theological insight Rossetti brings to her verse, but by 19 days in, my interest in Victorian poetry had definately waned! I did stick with the book (right up to Epiphany) and I am glad I did. I didn't gain much more enjoyment from the poems, but the commentary was illuminating and thought provoking

[EspeciallySarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful companion through Advent and Christmas. I hadn't read a lot of Rossetti's poetry other than the title poem and Goblin Market before this book and it was a fascinating introduction.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s not you it’s me……

To be fair there is probably not a lot wrong with this book, I just don’t enjoy poetry. I wanted to try something different this year to read over Advent and having read, and enjoyed, one of Rachel Mann’s previous books I gave this a go. Unfortunately I found the style of Rossetti’s poems hard going at times so the underlying material that was being discussed was not my cup of tea. Rachel does however demonstrate insight into, and passion for Rossetti’s work.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book. A beautiful expression using CR's poetry.