Released: October 21, 2009
Songwriter: Robert Southwell Chris Wood
Producer: Robert Sadin
[Verse]
As I in hoary winter's night
Stood shivering in the snow
Surprised I was with sudden heat
Which made my heart to glow
And lifting up a fearful eye
To view what fire was near
A pretty babe all burning bright
Did in the air appear
Who, scorched with excessive heat
Such floods of tears did shed
As though His floods should quench His flames
Which with His tears were bred
"Alas!" quoth He, "but newly born
In fiery heats I fry
Yet none approach to warm their hearts
Or feel my fire but I!"
My faultless breast the furnace is
The fuel, wounding thorns
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke
The ashes, shames and scorns
The fuel Justice lay on
And Mercy blows the coals
The metal in this furnace wrought
Are men's defiled souls
For which, as now on fire I am
To work them to their good
So will I melt into a bath
To wash them in my blood
With this He vanished out of sight
And swiftly shrunk away
And straight I called unto mind
That it was Christmas Day
As I in hoary winter's night
Stood shivering in the snow
Surprised I was with sudden heat
Which made my heart to glow
And lifting up a fearful eye
To view what fire was near
A pretty babe all burning bright
Did in the air appear
Who, scorched with excessive heat
Such floods of tears did shed
As though His floods should quench His flames
Which with His tears were bred
"Alas!" quoth He, "but newly born
In fiery heats I fry
Yet none approach to warm their hearts
Or feel my fire but I!"
My faultless breast the furnace is
The fuel, wounding thorns
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke
The ashes, shames and scorns
The fuel Justice lay on
And Mercy blows the coals
The metal in this furnace wrought
Are men's defiled souls
For which, as now on fire I am
To work them to their good
So will I melt into a bath
To wash them in my blood
With this He vanished out of sight
And swiftly shrunk away
And straight I called unto mind
That it was Christmas Day
more tracks from the album
If on a Winter’s Night...
- The Hounds of Winter
- Bethlehem Down
- The Coventry Carol
- You Only Cross My Mind in Winter
- Hurdy Gurdy Man
- Lullaby for an Anxious Child
- Cherry Tree Carol
- Balulalow
- Now Winter Comes Slowly
- The Burning Babe
- Cold Song
- Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
- Christmas at Sea
- The Snow It Melts the Soonest
- There Is No Rose of Such Virtue
- Soul Cake
- Gabriel’s Message
- Blake’s Cradle Song
From the album
- If on a Winter’s Night... (2009)
Sting popular songs
- Shape of My Heart
- Englishman in New York
- Desert Rose
- Fields of Gold
- Fragile
- Russians
- It’s Probably Me
- If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
- Brand New Day
- Seven Days
- Mad About You
- A Thousand Years
- Soul Cake
- I Can’t Stop Thinking About You
- If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
- All This Time
- When We Dance
- If It’s Love
- The Last Ship
- Fortress Around Your Heart
- Children’s Crusade
- Moon Over Bourbon Street
- Synchronicity I
- Giacomo’s Blues