A Christmas Carol Flashcards
What is A Christmas Carol about? (3 points)
This carol is one of the most popular in the Western world - a staple of Christmas carol services
The stanzas progress from a description of winter, a metaphor for pre-Christian paganism and desolation, to Jesus’ birth in the second stanza
The final stanza relates the momentous birth to the salvation of humanity- ordinary people, like the poet herself, can worship him in a simple way (‘Give him my heart’)
What is the structure of A Christmas Carol? (2 points)
All the stanzas follow a rhyme-scheme pattern ABCB DE FE, which lends itself to a musical setting
What is the language and imagery of A Christmas Carol? (2 points)
The simplicity of the language is deceptive - it works as an understandable carol with the familiar tropes — angels, animals, humble birth in a stable, the sweetness of motherhood
The ‘bleak mid-winter’ is a metaphor for pre-Christian ignorance and human existence without God and Jesus - signifies present-day hardships suffered by poor people and the redemption of present-day sinners
What other poems does A Christmas Carol link to?
Devotional Poems
A Birthday
A Froth on the Face of the Deep
Memory
Twice
Up-Hill
What Would I Give?
What is the relevant context for A Christmas Carol? (2 points)
Was an Anglican, specifically a Tractarian – a branch of Christianity that emphasizes ritual and ceremony in worship
She read and studied the Bible
