“On
both sides in 1915 there would be more dead on any single day than yards gained
in the entire year. And there would be
nearly four more years of attrition—not to determine who was right, but who was
left.”
- Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914
- Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914
As Christmas of
1915 approached, military authorities on both sides did everything in their
power to prevent a repeat of the previous year’s unofficial Christmas truce,
during which soldiers had met in No Man’s Land to swap gifts and cigarettes,
bury their dead, and play a game of football. In December of 1915, the British high command
ordered “nothing of the kind is be allowed this year,” while Germans were
warned that any attempts to fraternize with the enemy would “result in
execution.” And yet in France at Laventie, British and German soldiers defied orders and met in
No Man’s Land to exchange souvenirs, sing carols, and bury the dead.* It was
an isolated occurrence.
Harefield Hospital, London, Christmas 1915 |
On Christmas Day
of 1915, the London Spectator published
a poem written by William Henry Draper, the rector of Adel’s parish
church near Leeds. Draper’s four sons were
fighting in the war. His second son, Captain
Roger Francis Draper, had been killed at Sulva Bay on August 21st, just four months earlier.
The Red
Christmas
“In these days
even our wedding bells ring with sombre and muffled sound.”
—Mr. Asquith, in the Speaker's
Library, November 25, 1915
O take away the
mistletoe
And bring the holly berry,
For all the lads are gone away
And all the girls look sad to-day,
There's no one left with them to play,
And only birds and babes and things unknowing
Dare be merry.
Then take away the mistletoe
And bring the holly berry.
And bring the holly berry,
For all the lads are gone away
And all the girls look sad to-day,
There's no one left with them to play,
And only birds and babes and things unknowing
Dare be merry.
Then take away the mistletoe
And bring the holly berry.
Roger Francis Draper IWM Lives of the First World War |
But oh its leaves are fresh and green,
Why bring the holly berry?
Because it wears the red, red hue,
The colour to the season true,
When war must have his tribute due,
And only birds and babes and things unknowing
Can be merry.
So take away the mistletoe,
Yet keep the holly berry.
And shall we never see again
Aught but the holly berry?
Yes, after sacrifice sublime,
When rings some later Christmas chime,
When dawns the new and better time,
Not only birds and babes and things unknowing
Shall be merry,
But you shall see the mistletoe
Twined with the holly berry.
—W.H. Draper
How does one
celebrate Christmas while experiencing world-shattering grief? The poem’s title, “Red Christmas,” suggests a
holiday awash in blood. Mistletoe—associated
with love and laughter, luck and vitality—is banished. But “bring the holly berry,” the scarlet
fruit, like poppies, associated with the dead of the war.
Known in Scandinavia as “Christ’s Thorn,” the holly of Christmas also recalls Christ’s suffering and death. Its prickly leaves represent the crown of thorns, and its red berries symbolize drops of Jesus’s blood. The evergreen holly is a vivid reminder of sacrifice even as it decks the halls to celebrate a miraculous birth. In the midst of present darkness, the poem looks forward to a time when “after sacrifice sublime,” a “new and better time” will dawn.
Adel St. John's WWI Memorial |
In a book of
poetry published before the war, Draper had written an untitled Christmas poem. When read with the knowledge that three of his
sons died in the Great War, its last lines are heart-rending:
Father
of Lights! be with us
When
earthly light sinks low,
That
we may find hereafter
The
love of long ago.††
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Joe Shute,
“The forgotten Christmas truce the British tried to suppress,” Telegraph, 26 Dec. 2015,
www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/12058701/The-forgotten-Christmas-truce-the-British-tried-to-suppress.html,
Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.
† Andrew Robinson,
“The Great War’s test of faith for church rector,” Yorkshire Evening Post, 1 Aug. 2014,
www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/the-great-war-s-test-of-faith-for-church-rector-1-6762907,
Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.
†† W. H. Draper, “When on the Eve of Christmas,” Poems of the Love of England, Chatto & Windus, 1914, p. v.
†† W. H. Draper, “When on the Eve of Christmas,” Poems of the Love of England, Chatto & Windus, 1914, p. v.
No comments:
Post a Comment