Famed English poet Christina Rossett wrote about the bleak midwinter in a poem published in the January 1872 issue of Scribner’s Monthly.
The poem was under the title “A Christmas Carol” and has since been set to music and is a holiday standard. But the haunting lines of a bleak midwinter, which was also turned into a novel and made into a film, will come to the forefront with an impending weather event.
The National Weather Service in Cleveland has issued a severe an Extreme Cold Weather watch with the following tips.
What to expect:
- Arctic air will arrive late this weekend into early week.
- Hazardous wind chills are expected with the coldest wind chills and temperatures expected Monday night into Tuesday.
- Wind chills will likely be as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero Monday night into Tuesday morning.
- A series of clipper systems will bring periods of widespread light snow to the area through the middle of next week.
All of Source Media Properties coverage areas are included in the Extreme Cold Weather watch, including Richland, Ashland and Knox counties, along with Crawford and Morrow counties.
Listed below are some basic cold-weather tips and preparations to make to weather the chill.
A Christmas Carol
By Christina Rossetti (1872)
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom Angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.
Angels and Archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
Give my heart.