This Little Babe

One of the most stirring Christmas Carols I know is the carol “This Little Babe” written by the 16th century poet Robert Southwell. The English composer Benjamin Britten famously included it in his 1942 Ceremony of Carols. If you have doubts that a treble choir and a harp can sound martial, look no further than this carol! (Here is a recording [in English] by a French children’s choir.)

This little Babe so few days old

is come to rifle Satan’s fold;

all hell doth at his presence quake

though he himself for cold do shake;

for in this weak unarmèd wise

the gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field,

his naked breast stands for a shield;

his battering shot are babish cries,

his arrows looks of weeping eyes,

his martial ensigns Cold and Need

and feeble Flesh his warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,

his bulwark but a broken wall;

the crib his trench, haystacks his stakes;

of shepherds he his muster makes;

and thus, as sure his foe to wound,

the angels’ trump alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight,

stick to the tents that he hath pight.

Within his crib is surest ward,

this little Babe will be thy guard.

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,

then flit not from this heavenly Boy.