Winnipeg: | | | |
Winnipeg at Christmas
In Winnipeg at Christmas there's lots and
lots of snow,
Very clean, and crisp and hard
And glittering
like a Christmas card
Everywhere you go;
Snow upon the
housetops, snow along the street,
And Queen Victoria in her
chair
Has snow upon her snowy hair
And snow upon her feet.
In Winnipeg at Christmas they line the
streets with trees-
Christmas trees lit up at night
With
little balls of coloured light
As pretty as you please.
The
people hurry past you in furry boots and wraps;
The sleighs are
like a picture book,
And all the policemen look
Like Teddy Bears in caps.
And oh! The smiling ladies and jolly girls
and boys;
And oh! The parties and the fun
With lovely things
for everyone-
Books and sweets and toys.
So, if someday at
Christmas you don't know where to go,
Just pack your bags I
beg,
And start at once for Winnipeg;
You'll like it there I know.
- Rose Fyleman
Who is Rose
Fyleman?
Rose Fyleman
(1877–1957). The English children's writer Rose Fyleman is remembered
primarily for her poems about fairies. She was also a teacher, translator,
editor, singer, and lecturer.
Rose Amy Fyleman was born on March 6, 1877, in Basford,
Nottinghamshire, England. She began writing as a girl, creating poems and
rhymes for family gatherings. She studied to become a teacher but left the
University College in Nottingham without fulfilling all of the requirements.
She then studied singing in Berlin, Paris, and London, where in 1903 she made
her professional singing debut. While performing and giving voice lessons in
London, she began to write poetry.
Fyleman did not begin writing seriously until her poem Fairies at the
Bottom of Our Garden was published in Punch magazine in 1917. She became a
favorite among the magazine's readers, and soon her poems were published in
book form. The success of her first collection, Fairies and Chimneys (1918),
allowed Fyleman to give up her job as an assistant in her sister's elementary
school to become a full-time writer. Her subsequent collections of fairy verse
include The Fairy Green (1919), The Fairy Flute (1921), and Fairies and Friends
(1925).
In addition to her fairy poems, Fyleman wrote plays and fiction for
children. Her plays were published in such collections as Eight Little Plays
for Children (1924) and Nine New Plays for Children (1934), and her stories
appeared in Forty Goodnight Tales (1923), The Adventure Club (1925), and other
books. Her other collections of verse include A Princess Comes to Our Town
(1927) and Fifty-One New Nursery Rhymes (1931).
In 1923 Fyleman founded the children's magazine Merry-Go-Round, which
she then edited. She also wrote information books and opera librettos. She died
in London on Aug. 1, 1957.
But the question still remains...
how did Rose come to write this poem?
Rose Fyleman was invited to Winnipeg as the guest
speaker at a Women's Club. She was
staying at The Fort Gary Hotel. In the evening the president of the club and
Rose decided to walk down to the parliament buildings so Rose could see the
statue of Queen Victoria. It was such a beautiful evening that when they got
back to the hotel, Rose sat down and wrote that poem which we all love so much.
I have made Christmas cards with the poem on the front. The president of that
club is in her nineties now and still living in Winnipeg in a seniors home.
Terry
MacLeod, the host of the Winnipeg morning show on CBC, who tells me in fact he
interviewed Jean MacDonald -- the 94-year-old lady in question.
- taken from an internet adboard.
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