Edmund Blunden’s Christmas Eve, 1959

Christmas Eve 1959
The time comes round when all the faiths and fears
With which I marched or trembled
Should in the audit of so many years Be in one truth assembled;
And by our fire this Christmas Eve, afar From old homes’ glad bell-ringings
That made us see the wise men, the one star And hear – what heavenly singings,
All seems to tune; remembrance smiles, the sweet Carol again, a blessing
Past all uncertainties; may such song greet Ages in their progressing:
And long all humblest church-towers, thus upraised
Over huge cities stories,
Chime forth the bright untrembling ‘God be praised’
To the star-host’s glories.

Edmund Charles Blunden CBE MC (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was also a reviewer for English publications and an academic in Tokyo. In 1953 after three years back in England, he accepted the post of Professor of English Literature at the University of Hong Kong. He ended his career as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.