Christmas Night by C. Fox Smith, Adapted for Singing by Charlie Ipcar

round_horn_dawsonWe hope that everyone is having a most merry Christmas. Here is a poem by C. Fox Smith adapted for song by Charlie Ipcar. As we posted last June, Cecily Fox Smith was a Victorian poet best remembered for her poems about ships and sailors in the last days of the age of sail. She wrote more than 600 poems which were published in more than two dozen volumes. In recent years, her work has seen a revival as her poems have inspired musicians to write music to her verses.  Over 70 of her poems have been adapted as songs, including this one.

Christmas Night

By Cicely Fox Smith from Rhymes of the Red Ensign,  edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, © 1919, pp. 71-72. Adapted for singing by Charlie Ipcar, © 12/26/08 Tune inspired by Christmas Day in the Morning

We shipped a sea on Christmas night,
On Christmas night, on Christmas night!
From stem to stern the decks flowed white –
On Christmas night till the morning!
“One more like that,” our mate did say,
“And she’ll not last till the break of day,”
So deep she rolled, so ill she lay –
All the night long till the morning!

So black the night, the gale it screamed,
On Christmas night, on Christmas night!
Like gushing wounds her swing-ports streamed;
On Christmas night till the morning!
All ice the yard was where we clung,
The frozen shrouds shrill carols sung,
Like harps the twanging backstays rung –
All the night long till the morning!

Read or sing the rest here.

Comments

Christmas Night by C. Fox Smith, Adapted for Singing by Charlie Ipcar — 1 Comment

  1. A real good read.

    Believe me, the holidays suck, but you get used to is cause you know they’ll be over soon.

    ‘Tis the season to hate holidays! Google it, you’ll be surprised.

    When the Holidays Hurt: ‘Tis the Season… to Pretend There’s No Season at All
    Posted: 12/22/2014 12:42 pm EST Updated: 12/22/2014 12:59 pm EST

    Listen. I’m not one to ever come out against presents. I love sea turtle calendars just as much, if not more than the average person, but I really need society to get the hell away from me with this whole “let’s be jolly” thing.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ravishly/when-the-holidays-hurt_b_6358842.html