23 Famous Holiday Poems - Classic Popular Poetry for the Holidays

21. Before The Ice Is In The Pools

By Emily Dickinson

Famous Poem

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who lived from 1830-1886. The first volume of her poetry was not published until four years after her death. In this poem, it’s not clear what the speaker was waiting for, but some believe it could be Sue, Emily’s sister-in-law. They spent many years corresponding with each other but had moments of estrangement. Some believe this poem also has religious and spiritual references to touching to cloak of Jesus and crossing over to death. Or it could simply be about waiting for winter to arrive. This poem is composed of quatrains (four-line stanzas) that follow the ABCB rhyme scheme.

Before the ice is in the pools—
Before the skaters go,
Or any check at nightfall
Is tarnished by the snow—

Before the fields have finished,
Before the Christmas tree,
Wonder upon wonder
Will arrive to me!

What we touch the hems of
On a summer's day—
What is only walking
Just a bridge away—

That which sings so—speaks so—
When there's no one here—
Will the frock I wept in
Answer me to wear?

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22. The Holy Night

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Famous Poem

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet who lived from 1806-1861. Her first book of poems was published privately by her father at the age of 14. She was a Christian who taught herself Greek and Hebrew so she could better study the Bible, and this poem has religious roots in the retelling of Christ’s birth.

We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem;
The dumb kine from their fodder turning them,
Softened their horned faces
To almost human gazes
Toward the newly Born:
The simple shepherds from the star-lit brooks
Brought their visionary looks,
As yet in their astonied hearing rung
The strange sweet angel-tongue:
The magi of the East, in sandals worn,
Knelt reverent, sweeping round,
With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground,
The incense, myrrh, and gold
These baby hands were impotent to hold:
So let all earthlies and celestials wait
Upon thy royal state.
Sleep, sleep, my kingly One!

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23. Kriss Kringle

By Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Famous Poem

Filling stockings at Christmastime is one of the traditions of Santa Claus. In this cute holiday poem, he also leaves a sweet surprise for the birds, a surprise to be enjoyed by everyone on Christmas morning. Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) wrote short stories, novels, and poems. He liked to use unexpected endings in his short stories.

Just as the moon was fading
Amid her misty rings,
And every stocking was stuffed
With childhood’s precious things,

Old Kriss Kringle looked around,
And saw on the elm-tree bough,
High hung, an oriole’s nest,
Lonely and empty now.

“Quite a stocking,” he laughed,
“Hung up there on a tree!
I didn’t suppose the birds
Expected a present from me!”

Then old Kriss Kringle, who loves
A joke as well as the best,
Dropped a handful of snowflakes
Into the oriole’s empty nest.