OK, I know that pretty much everything I've posted this month condemns me as a miserly Scrooge-y, grinch-y type, and I know that this won't help my case, but I just have to say something about it. Publicly. Because that makes all kinds of sense.
Right, so during the last few years, I've started paying closer attention to Christmas songs, and there is one rhyme that almost EVERYONE uses that has never sat quite right with me: 'mild' and 'child.' I have a bone to pick with that rhyme and pretty much every song that uses it.
First off, many of said songs describe the newborn baby Jesus as 'mild.' I really don't think that he is ever described biblically as being 'mild.' In the King James Version, at least, it doesn't happen. It just alliterates nicely with 'meek.' Secondly, according to my dictionary, 'mild' means "gentle or kind in disposition or behavior." Very well, touche. That description probably does fit Jesus very well in the Christmas story, but then again, what newborn couldn't be described that way???
Secondly, and this includes the lyricists who have described Mary and/or Joseph this way, what ever happened to creativity? I thought that was what poetry was all about! How about 'smiled,' 'un/defiled,' 'un/beguiled,' 'riled' 'piled,' 'exiled,' or 'trialed'? Yes, most of them are probably not as clear cut as 'mild' and 'child,' but you could work them in, right? If you wanted to get really crazy with it, 'filed,' 'wild,' or 'dialed' would also work. Or here's an idea - don't use 'mild' or 'child' at the end of a line at all. I can't stop applauding whoever wrote 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing,' for rhyming 'mild' with 'reconciled.' *Looking it up...* Charles Wesley - bravo, well done, sir!
Alright, alright. I don't mean to be irreverent here and despite all I've said, I really don't mean to be a Scrooge. I love Christmas songs, and particularly Christmas hymns. I love the message that they relate and I love to sing and hear them again and again and again. I'm just writing this for any up and coming poets who might happen to read my blog and are planning to write the next classic Christmas song, to let them know that this caroler is ready to celebrate the season with some new rhymes.
Bahaha.I love this. And if you're a scrooge I don't know what that makes me, since I've read your posts about making Christmas for Addie and thought "huh. It didn't really even occur to me to worry about Kate's first Christmas. She won't remember!"
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure it makes you a very sensible mother. :)
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