![]() ![]() May not be forgotten in later experience, (Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell), So that the surprises, delight in new possessions ![]() So that the glittering rapture, the amazement Spreading its wings at the summit of the treeĪt the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),Īnd the childish - which is not that of the childįor whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel The social, the torpid, the patently commercial, There are several attitudes towards Christmas, What makes Eliot’s verses especially memorable is that while they deal with a religious holiday, they speak to a very secular concern: our struggle to hold on to our inborn capacity for wonder, that same essential faculty that fuels both science and spirituality. I was fortunate enough to track down a surviving first American edition of Eliot’s final poem-pamphlet for the Ariel series, The Cultivation of Christmas Trees ( public library) - a long-out-of-print gem, typeset, bound, and illustrated by Enrico Arno, who had fled Nazi Germany due to his Jewish descent, spent some time in Italy, and eventually settled in the United States to become an acclaimed book designer and album cover artist. Eliot (September 26, 1888–January 4, 1965), who wrote six poems for the project, beginning at its inception in 1927 and ending in 1954, when he was in his late sixties. Among the most notable contributors to the series - titled Ariel, after Shakespeare’s spirit from “The Tempest” - was celebrated poet and notorious cat-lover T. Yeats, and Vita Sackville-West (yes, as in Virginia Woolf’s lover). Thanks to the company’s relationships and stable of authors, he was able to secure work from such literary greats as Edith Sitwell, W. In coming years, Christmas Memories may come to seem like a remarkably dour holiday collection, but for the year of its release, it could hardly be improved upon.In 1927, an enterprising and creatively minded British man by the name of Richard de la Mare, production director at London’s Faber & Gwyer, which would become the legendary publishing house Faber and Faber two years later, came up with an unusual idea: He would ask famous writers and illustrators to contribute holiday-themed verses and drawings for a poetry pamphlet series to be sent to clients instead of Christmas cards and sold to the general public for a shilling each, or about five pennies. When she isn't mourning, Streisand is trying for grand statements such as the politically oriented "Grown-Up Christmas List" and the ecumenical "One God," songs in keeping with Christmas's sentimentality that seem perfectly chosen for the inevitably sober-tinged holiday season of 2001. As remade, "I Remember" remains an extremely sad song, however. The 59-year-old singer has assembled a group of songs that look back on Christmases past from a mature perspective that very much takes loss into consideration, beginning with one of those war songs, "I'll Be Home for Christmas." On two occasions, she has prompted lyricists to rewrite their songs, having Dean Pitchford alter the words to "Closer," a new song submitted to her, to reflect the death of her friend Stephan Weiss (husband of fashion designer Donna Karan) and even getting the amazingly pliable Stephen Sondheim to revise "I Remember" from his 1966 TV musical Evening Primrose. But Streisand's Christmas Memories accentuates that tone well into melancholy. Christmas music always mixes the celebratory with the nostalgic, some of its classic songs dating from the World War II era when families were separated and feared they might not be reunited. If great artists sometimes demonstrate an uncanny ability to take the temperature of the times with their work, this one can be said to have anticipated the dramatic change in mood that the terrorist attacks occasioned. ![]() And listening to the disc, you can see why. Barbra Streisand makes a point of noting that she completed this, her second Christmas album, before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, even going so far as to list the recording dates (July 19-September 7, 2001).
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