Today, we’re concluding our poems on joy by going back to T.S. Eliot, whose poem, “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees” is too good not to share this week.
The Cultivation of Christmas Trees
By T.S. Eliot
There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),
And the childish – which is not that of the child
For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel
Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree
Is not only a decoration, but an angel.
The child wonders at the Christmas Tree:
Let him continue in the spirit of wonder
At the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext;
So that the glittering rapture, the amazement
Of the first-remembered Christmas Tree,
So that the surprises, delight in new possessions
(Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell),
The expectation of the goose or turkey
And the expected awe on its appearance,
So that the reverence and the gaiety
May not be forgotten in later experience,
In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,
The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure,
Or in the piety of the convert
Which may be tainted with a self-conceit
Displeasing to God and disrespectful to children
(And here I remember also with gratitude
St.Lucy, her carol, and her crown of fire):
So that before the end, the eightieth Christmas
(By “eightieth” meaning whichever is last)
The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy
Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion
When fear came upon every soul:
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.
Thanks, as always, for following along here. Throughout this week, the daily Advent poems will continue to be free for all subscribers. If you would like to receive my Friday reflections on the poems, however, along with special holiday meal and drink recipes from me, plus access to the full archives of this retreat and newsletter, I would love it if you joined us as a full subscriber. This retreat and the newsletter itself only exists because of reader support, so I am incredibly grateful for every one of you who is already helping me do this work and for those of you who decide to upgrade your subscription today.
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