Song of the Day - 18th December

Continuing our Yule theme with only 3 days to go until Winter Solstice, today's Song of the Day is a setting of a poem called "The Mistletoe" by Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874). Unusually for a poem it has a chorus of sorts, which lends itself nicely to a musical setting.

This song is being beta tested by my friends The Mearns Singers and I am very much looking forward to hearing their recording of it!

Bryan Waller Procter was a Yorkshire man and a lawyer, educated at Harrow and schoolmates with such notable fellows as Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel, who was to become Prime Minister. He began writing poetry in 1815 under the pseudonym Barry Cornwall.

This poem is written from the point of view of young ladies who enjoy watching their menfolk bring in various evergreens to decorate the house, beginning with laurel and holly, but then the poem takes a slightly cheeky turn when the men "laugh low" and bring in the mistletoe.

The Mistletoe

By Bryan Waller Procter

When winter nights grow long,

And winds without blow cold,

We sit in a ring round the warm wood-fire,

And listen to stories old!

And we try to look grave, (as maids should be,)

When the men bring in boughs of the Laurel-tree.

O the Laurel, the evergreen tree!

The poets have laurels, and why not we?

How pleasant, when night falls down

And hides the wintry sun,

To see them come in to the blazing fire,

And know that their work is done;

Whilst many bring in, with a laugh or rhyme,

Green branches of Holly for Christmas time!

O the Holly, the bright green Holly,

It tells (like a tongue) that the times are jolly!

Sometimes—(in our grave house,

Observe, this happeneth not;)

But, at times, the evergreen laurel boughs

And the holly are all forgot!

And then! what then? why, the men laugh low

And hang up a branch of the Mistletoe!

O brave is the Laurel! and brave is the Holly!

But the Mistletoe banisheth melancholy!

Ah, nobody knows, nor ever shall know,

What is done—under the Mistletoe.