The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #37092   Message #516634
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
28-Jul-01 - 10:38 AM
Thread Name: Know any hard-hitting christmas songs?
Subject: Lyr Add: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (G. K. Chesterton)
Depends what you mean by contemporary. Here is something Chesterton dashed off when he read a piece in the paper "The chief constable has issued a statement declaring that carol singing in the streets by children is illegal and morally and physically injurious. He appeals to the public to discourage the practice." This would have been about 1925. Not much changes does it?

God rest you merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay;
The Herald Angels cannot sing,
The cops arrest them on the wing,
And warn them of the docketing
Of anything they say.

God rest you merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay;
On your reposeful cities lie
Deep silence, broken only by
The motor horn's melodious cry
The hooters happy bray.

So when the song of children ceased
And Herod was obeyed,
In his high hall Corinthian
With purple and with peacock fan,
Rested that merry gentleman;
And nothing him dismayed.