The Oxford Book of Christmas Poems

This beautifully designed book contains well over 100 Christmas poems--old and new, traditional and modern--and features four sections starting in winter, moving through Advent, and arriving at the Nativity and the heart of the Christmas season. Finally, with the arrival of the Wise Men, comes the promise of a new year. Full of old chestnuts like "The Night Before Christmas," there are surprises here too in poems like Thomas Hardy's "Christmas: 1924" and Elizabeth Jennings' "Afterthought." Poets include Robert Lowell, John Betjeman, Elizabeth Coatsworth, William Blake, Madeleine L'Engle and many more. Along with a wide range of poems, the anthology contains some familiar verses and carols. All are festively decorated with Yuletide illustrations by many well-known artists.