The Burning Babe
For Christmas
Words adapted from the poem The Burning Babe by Saint Robert Southwell, S.J. (1561-1595), 1602 (with notes)
Source: Richard Runciman Terry, Old Christmas Carols. Part One. (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, n.d., ca. 1923), #1, p. 1.
1. As I in hoary winter's night
stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat
which made my heart to glow,
2. And lifting up a fearful eye
to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright
did in the air appear,
3. Who, scorched with excessive heat,
such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames
which with his tears were fed.
4. "Alas," quoth he, "but newly born,
in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts
or feel my fire but I.
5. "My faultless breast the furnace is;
the fuel wounding thorns;
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke,
the ashes, shame and scorns.
6. "The fuel justice layeth on
and mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought
are men's defiled souls,
7. "For which, as now on fire I am
to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath
to wash them in my blood."
8. With this he vanished out of sight,
and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind
that it was Christmas day.
Sheet Music from Richard Runciman Terry, Old Christmas Carols. Part One. (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, n.d., ca. 1923), #1, p. 1.
In this version, Terry treats the carol as being in four verses, with four very long lines each. The first verse would look like this:
As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in
the snow,
Surpris'd I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow,
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear.
The original poem may have been cast in 16 unbroken lines. See the notes under the poem (link above).
Also found in Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 270.
Other Marion and Christmas-tide poems / carols by Robert Southwell, and the page numbers that those poems begin on, include:
-
A Childe My Choyce (A Child My Choice) (), 70
-
New Prince, New Pompe (), 107
-
The Burning Babe, 109 [This Page]
-
New Heaven, New War, 110
-
The Conception of our Ladie, 116
-
Our Ladie's Nativitye, 117
-
Our Ladye's Spousalls, 119
-
Our Ladie's Salutation, 120
-
Josephe's Amazement, 122
-
The Visitation, 126
-
The Nativity of Christe, 123
-
The Circumcision, 130
-
The Epiphanye, 131
-
The Presentaton, 133
-
The Flight Into Egipt, 134
-
The Retorne Out Of Egipt, 135
All of these can be found in The Complete Poems of Robert Southwell (1872), available at both Google Books and, in multiple formats, the Internet Archive.
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