Bit of a sad one, believe it or not - WINTER WONDERLAND Winter Wonderland is a surprisingly simple, but very catchy, song. No surprise then that it has been recorded by over 150 different artists! Richard B. Smith was thirty three when he wrote it and recently married, but tuberculosis saw him confined to a sanatorium. It might have been a bleak winter indeed! The frost on the trees and the snow on the hills might have seemed a good deal less romantic - if his new wife, Jean, hadnt been working there as a nurse! No doubt she brought the promise of spring to a Pennsylvanian winter. Perhaps some of his recuperation involved walks with Jean in the lane where snow is glistening and, in the flush of love, he might well have thought they were walking in a winter wonderland. The couple in the song build a snowman and pretend he is a parson. Wishful thinking? In years gone by parsons, or ministers, would travel a circuit of towns with no regular clergy of their own. Weddings and the like had to wait until his arrival. So, these you lovers would have been only to keen for Parson Brown to get to town! Once the job had been done the newly-weds, much like Richard and Jean, would dream by the fire and face unafraid the plans that weve made. Gone away is the bluebird, the lyric tells us. Then it adds, Here to stay is a new bird. He sings a love song, as we go along. So, who is this new bird who sings love to us as we walk through our lives? Well, Hes not mentioned in the song, so I wont shoe-horn Him into it. Ill leave it to you to decide if the One referred to in the Book of Psalms as a new song is singing love to you as you walk through the wonderland of your life! Those Little Extras • Winter Wonderland has been recorded by over 150 artists, including Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald and Clay Aiken. • Christmas is never mentioned in the song. • The often used verse about the snowman being a circus clown was a later addition. • Richard B. Smith died the year after he wrote the song. To The Gift-Giver What earthly lover ever cared for us and provided for us like you have, Lord? The whole world is a serenade to us, and we usually aren’t listening – but you sing on because you truly love us. In return, we sing hesitantly, at church, in our hearts. Teach us, oh Great Musician, to sing the song of our lives, a song or response, from beloved to lover. From The Gift-Giver And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. Ezekiel 33:32. KJV How Wonderful Other People Thought It Was “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” Edith Sitwell. English poet and critic. 1887-1964 “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” Lewis Caroll. (Charles Dodgson) Author of Alice In Wonderland. 1832-1898 “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Percy Bysshe Shelley. English Romantic poet. 1792-1822 “Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four oclock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.” Thomas de Quincey. English essayist. 1785-1859 “We would get on our toboggan, a boy would give us a shove, and off we went! … What joy! What exhilarating madness! For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine!” Helen Keller. Deaf-blind author and political activist. 1880-1968 https://youtube/watch?v=lkFP0VwpPRY
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 17:13:00 +0000
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