June Cotner has created the perfect gift for all those seeking a richer and more spiritual Christmas experience: A keepsake collection of over 100 poems and prayers. From angels and shepherds to memories, inspiration, and Christmas through the eyes of a child, this treasury celebrates every aspect of the holiday and includes blessings, toasts, and prayers for every occasion.

Christmas is both a holiday and a holy day, and from the start it has been associated with poetry, from the song of the seraphim above the manger to the cherished carols around the punch bowl. This garland of Christmas poems contains not only the ones you would insist on finding here ("A Visit from St. Nicholas," "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" among them) but such equally enchanting though lesser-known Yuletide treasures as Emily Dickinson's "The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman," Anthony Hecht's "Christmas Is Coming," Rudyard Kipling's "Christmas in India," Langston Hughes's "Shepherd's Song at Christmas," Robert Graves's "The Christmas Robin," and happy surprises like Phyllis McGinley's "Office Party," Dorothy Parker's "The Maid-Servant at the Inn," and Philip Larkin's "New Year Poem."

Why celebrate the wonderful blessings of Christmas only during the holiday season when you can celebrate Christmas every day? This refreshing gift book will encourage you to ponder the many reasons to celebrate Christmas—family, friends, blessings, and of course, the true Reason for the season. Extend the Christmas spirit throughout the year with Helen Steiner Rice's A Collection of Christmas Poetry, where you’ll find the encouragement and inspiration you need to keep Christmas in your heart.

Whatever the celebration, whatever the day, whatever the occasion, Helen Steiner Rice possessed the ability to express the appropriate feeling for that particular moment in time. Her positive attitude, her concern for others, and her love of God are identifiable threads woven into her life and her work. The role Christmas plays in an individual's life depends on the interpretation of the event and varies from person to person and family to family. In this collection of verses Helen Steiner Rice simply and touchingly reaffirms the nature of faith and hope.

The first critical edition of Auden's only explicitly religious long poem For the Time Being is a pivotal book in the career of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. W. H. Auden had recently moved to America, fallen in love with a young man to whom he considered himself married, rethought his entire poetic and intellectual equipment, and reclaimed the Christian faith of his childhood. Then, in short order, his relationship fell apart and his mother, to whom he was very close, died. In the midst of this period of personal crisis and intellectual remaking, he decided to write a poem about Christmas and to have it set to music by his friend Benjamin Britten. Applying for a Guggenheim grant, Auden explained that he understood the difficulty of writing something vivid and distinctive about that most clichéd of subjects, but welcomed the challenge. In the end, the poem proved too long and complex to be set by Britten, but in it we have a remarkably ambitious and poetically rich attempt to see Christmas in double focus: as a moment in the history of the Roman Empire and of Judaism, and as an ever-new and always contemporary event for the believer. For the Time Being is Auden's only explicitly religious long poem, a technical tour de force, and a revelatory window into the poet's personal and intellectual development. This edition provides the most accurate text of the poem, a detailed introduction by Alan Jacobs that explains its themes and sets the poem in its proper contexts, and thorough annotations of its references and allusions.

A rich and varied compilation of Yuletide verse, this collection will enchant readers of all ages. Featured poets include Kipling, Poe, Longfellow, Dickinson, Hardy, Donne, and many others. 25 illustrations.