That fireside feeling

Why do so many Christmas cards feature fireplaces with glowing coals?

Undoubtedly it is partly to do with the idea that Saint Nicholas (from which ‘Santa Claus’ is derived) might visit. The classic verse ’Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C

Moore depicts his arrival:

‘As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedlar just opening his pack.’

The jolly visitor proceeds to fill up the stockings hung ready for his arrival before disappearing back up the chimney with a nod.

Not just about Santa

But a glowing hearth also symbolises other things – warmth and cosiness, a sense of togetherness and contentment. The physical comfort it brings is mirrored by a positive glow of emotions. Gathering by the fireside is what we do once we are full of Christmas dinner, too replete to want to do much anything except relax with our family or friends.

If you are lucky enough to sit by a real fire or stove, you will know how the quiet snap and shuffle of burning fuel, alongside the patterns of dancing flames, gradually draw the attention away from external diversions to a quiet contemplation of the hearth.

The new Crossref-it.info guide to the poems of John Keats features an early poem which sums up the soothing mood cast by the fireplace, as the poet sits before it with his younger brothers, Tom and George:

‘Small, busy flames play through the fresh laid coals,
And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep
Like whispers of the household gods that keep
A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls.
And while, for rhymes, I search around the poles, (5)
Your eyes are fix d, as in poetic sleep,
Upon the lore so voluble and deep,
That aye at fall of night our care condoles.’

You can read the rest of the sonnet and find out more about what led to its creation here. But meanwhile, as the rush of things to get done before Christmas Day may seem to overwhelm you, it is good to be brought back to a place of peace and communion by this poem. After all, peace and communion are part of the original Christmas message.

Enjoy the holiday!

Tragic early life of genius

200 years ago, it is 1815. 

He has just turned 19. 

He has almost no money, yet heads up a household of three boys and one girl, following the death of his father when he was 8 and his mother’s death when he was 14 (who had previously deserted her children for three years when he was 9).

The Duke of Wellington has at last finally defeated the French Emperor Napoleon, bringing to an end over twenty years of warfare between Britain and France.

He loves reading – in the best seller lists are novels by Walter Scott and Jane Austen, volumes of poetry by Byron, Shelley, Blake, Cowper and Wordsworth, although he cannot afford to buy them.

Political ferment is in the air – the mad old King George III has been replaced by his fat, lascivious, vain eldest son, George, Prince Regent and the press are reflecting the people’s dissatisfaction. Leigh Hunt and others are writing political pamphlets which get them arrested – pamphlets which he reads avidly, for he is a radical.

But he has no money, so he has to engage in a trade – learning how to do surgery at Guy’s Hospital in London.

It isn’t the best of starts. Life has been hard for this young man.

And in six years’ time he will be dead.

Why do we know about him – why do we care?

Because before he died of tuberculosis aged 24, John Keats had written some of the most moving and memorable poetry the world has ever read.

Immerse yourself in his world and discover what emerged from this unpromising start in the John Keats text guide.