Sunday Poetry - Christmas

My final Christmas carol is more recent in date than my usual choices but it has a lovely, melancholy feel to it that appeals to me. I Wonder As I Wander was collected in 1933 by John Jacob Niles in North Carolina & is a folk song from the Appalachian Mountains. No one really knows how old it is & some say it's early twentieth-century. I don't think it matters because it's such a beautiful song. The gentle music is such an important part of this carol so, if you don't know it, here it is, sung by the Cambridge Singers.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from God's heaven, a star's light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's Angels in heaven to sing
He surely could have it, 'cause he was the King

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky