What's your take on ths poem??

To Jesus on His Birthday


Edna St. Vincent Millay





For this your mother sweated in the cold,


For this you bled upon the bitter tree:


A yard of tinsel ribbon bought and sold;


A paper wreath; a day at home for me.


The merry bells ring out, the people kneel;


Up goes the man of God before the crowd;


With voice of honey and with eyes of steel


He drones your humble gospel to the proud.


Nobody listens. Less than the wind that blows


Are all your words to us you died to save.


O Prince of Peace! O Sharon's dewy Rose!


How mute you lie within your vaulted grave.


The stone the angel rolled away with tears


Is back upon your mouth these thousand years.





doesn't it seem like it's mocking god or something?


what do you think?

What's your take on ths poem??
For this your mother sweated in the cold,


For this you bled upon the bitter tree:


A yard of tinsel ribbon bought and sold;


A paper wreath; a day at home for me





This piece is about how Christmas has turned from being about Jesus' birth, and the salvation of man, to a day for ourselves.








The merry bells ring out, the people kneel;


Up goes the man of God before the crowd;


With voice of honey and with eyes of steel


He drones your humble gospel to the proud.


Nobody listens. Less than the wind that blows


Are all your words to us you died to save.





This is about the one church service that people tend to attend, the christmas service, noone listens they are too involved with themselves to care about Jesus' sacrifice.





O Prince of Peace! O Sharon's dewy Rose!


How mute you lie within your vaulted grave.


The stone the angel rolled away with tears


Is back upon your mouth these thousand years.





This part is saying that the tombstone rolled away from Jesus' grave, that back then spoke to many of His rising has been "rolled back" silencing His Word.





Hope this makes sense
Reply:It's not "mocking" (what is it with christians and this word?), it's saying people ignore christianity despite paying lip service to it. So basically Jesus is dead because people stopped caring. The author seems not to go along with the charade of church ("a day at home for me") but she obviously does care. A bit like Leonard Cohen in its intensely felt post-religiousity. Then again, some people take offense of his songs as well.
Reply:I don't care for it.
Reply:Not mocking God, decrying man for making a mockery of God.
Reply:I don't think it's mocking God. It's mocking the way people have cheapened Christmas with commercialism (tinsel ribbon and paper wreaths), thereby cheapening the sacrifice of Christ. It also, in my opinion, compares modern day hollow religious beliefs with the hollow religion of Jesus' day. (That is, people who use religion and the church to further their own agenda rather than worshipping Christ.)