{"id":136,"date":"2008-12-12T09:38:21","date_gmt":"2008-12-12T17:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/?p=136"},"modified":"2008-12-12T09:41:24","modified_gmt":"2008-12-12T17:41:24","slug":"among-the-oxen-a-reflection-on-cs-lewis-christmas-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/among-the-oxen-a-reflection-on-cs-lewis-christmas-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"“Among the Oxen”: A Reflection on C.S. Lewis’ Christmas Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

As December progresses, the most familiar rhymes of the season start popping out everywhere:\u00a0 radio waves and shopping malls are filled with the strains of carols, mailboxes are flooded with cards full of short Christmas poems, and \u201c\u2019Twas The Night Before Christmas\u201d is read out loud in homes across the world.\u00a0 The topics of these Christmas songs and poems are many and varied and frequently star less-than-human protagonists, but what with \u201cFrosty the Snowman\u201d and \u201cRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,\u201d comparatively little stage time is given to the animals present at the Nativity of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most famous poem starring the Christmas animals is the old French carol entitled \u201c<\/span>The Friendly Beasts<\/span><\/a>,\u201d (circa 12th century; English trans. by Robert Davis, 1934)\u00a0which focuses on the humble contributions of the stable animals assumed present at the birth of Christ. \u00a0It is sung from the perspective of the donkey who lovingly carried Mary on her long journey to Bethlehem, the cow who donated the manger in which Christ lay, the sheep who gave up his wool for the swaddling clothes, and the dove who gently sang the Christ child to sleep on the night of his birth.\u00a0 Each verse begins with the refrain \u201c\u2019I\u2019, said the donkey, shaggy and brown\u201d or \u201c\u2019I\u2019, said the sheep with the curly horn\u201d, and the carol\u2019s last verse runs as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thus every beast by some glad spell,
\nIn the stable dark was glad to tell
\nOf the gift he gave Emmanuel.
\nThe gift he gave Emmanuel.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his poem \u201cThe Nativity\u201d, C.S. Lewis reflects on the same aspect of the Christmas story. \u00a0His treatment, however, takes the basic concept of the French carol and turns it on its head; rather than anthropomorphizing the beasts by giving them a \u2018glad spell\u2019 which allows them to participate in the human spirit of Christmas generosity, he inverts the familiar sentiment and wishes that he was able to respond to Christ\u2019s presence with the virtues which symbolically belong to these same animals:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

THE NATIVITY<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Among the oxen (like an ox I\u2019m slow)
\n<\/span>I see a glory in the stable grow
\n<\/span>Which, with the ox\u2019s dullness might at length
\n<\/span>Give me an ox\u2019s strength.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
\n<\/span>I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
\n<\/span>So may my beastlike folly learn at least
\n<\/span>The patience of a beast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
\n<\/span>I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
\n<\/span>Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
\n<\/span>Some woolly innocence!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lewis paints a portrait in which the power of Christmas begins in the Christ child, a \u2018glory in the stable\u2019 that is perceived through the lens of the animals.\u00a0 He watches from their perspective, \u2018among the asses\u2019 who find a child where they sought hay, and hopes to receive from that very child the grace to become like unto those who wait so patiently when they find their plates otherwise occupied. <\/span><\/p>\n

The direction of Lewis\u2019 poetic motion is in stark contrast to that of the French carol, in which the gift is to <\/em>the Christ-child, given with human intentions in the mode of a donkey, and, in many ways, \u201cThe Nativity\u201d seems to capture better the spirit of the season. At Christmas, we long to receive the grace that enters into the world through the humblest objects around us; it is not the gifts that we can give, but rather the gifts we are given, which truly make Christmas a holy day. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As December progresses, the most familiar rhymes of the season start popping out everywhere:\u00a0 radio waves and shopping malls are filled with the strains of carols, mailboxes are flooded with cards full of short Christmas poems, and \u201c\u2019Twas The Night Before Christmas\u201d is read out loud in homes across the world.\u00a0 The topics of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,84],"tags":[83,642,62,81,82],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general","category-poetry-arts-and-culture","tag-the-nativity","tag-cs-lewis","tag-christmas","tag-jenny-sawyer","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n"Among the Oxen": A Reflection on C.S. 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