This hymn has a text by Christina Rosetti and set by Gustav Holst. It is has been added to Breaking Bread by OCP for 2025.
I love Holst, but this is another Christmas song hopelessly bound to Eurocentric views of Christmas that have nothing to do with the Middle East, let alone the Southern Hemisphere. So for everyone where it snows at Christmas, enjoy this lovely carol. Merry Christmas.
The sheet music can be purchased at OCP, but is public domain so can be accessed all over the internet including here. I note OCP omit verse three. Everyone has done an arrangement of this it seems.
1 In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen,
snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.
2 Our God, heaven cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.
3 Enough for him whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breastful of milk
and a mangerful of hay:
enough for him
whom angels fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.
4 Angels and archangels
may have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air,
but only his mother,
in her maiden bliss,
worshiped the Beloved
with a kiss.
5 What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb,
if I were a wise man
I would do my part,
yet what I can I give him,
give my heart.