A Visit from St. Nicholas

Encyclopedia : A : AV : AVI : A Visit from St. Nicholas

Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem.

The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" from its first line, and first published in 1823, is largely responsible for the contemporary American conception of Santa Claus, including his appearance, the night he visits, his method of transportation, and that he brings toys to children. Prior to the poem, American ideas about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors varied considerably. In fact, before this poem the reindeer did not have any concrete names. It was from this poem that the now familiar names of the original eight Santa Claus' reindeer came: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder (or Donner), and Blitzen.

The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. Authorship was later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore and the poem was included in an anthology of his works, but his connection with the verses has been questioned by some. Moore's wife is of Dutch descent, being a descendant of the Van Courtlandt family via her mother. She shares bloodlines with Henry Livingston Jr. and Clement Clarke Moore's family is married into the Livingston family as well. Henry Livingston, a New Yorker with Dutch roots, is the chief candidate for authorship if Moore did not write it.

An American Anthology, 1787–1900, Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed., reprints the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem". (Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is actually "Donner", and the Dutch words would nowadays be "Donder en Bliksem")

Today, printings alter the grammar when Santa calls the reindeers' names so that it is easier to follow and replace the word "ere" in the second last sentence with "as".

Authorship

Evidence to support Moore as author

• Moore claimed the poem in 1844. This was at the request of his children. He had preferred to be known for more scholarly works.
• Moore may have had access to A History of New York by "Dietrich Knickerbocker" (Washington Irving) which covers the story of Sinterklaas.

• Moore and Irving were members of the same literary society in New York City and were friends.

• Although some say Moore falsely claimed authorship once before, this has since been disproved. He signed a book as a gift, as one dedicates a book they give to another person. He did not claim authorship. An article written by Seth Kaller proves this rumor false and defends other related arguments.

• Rev. David Butler who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley was a relative of Moore.

• Tradition has it that Rev. Butler's daughter, Harriet, was a guest in Moore's house and heard the poem as he read it for the first time to the family she and copied it down in her diary. Rev. Butler lived in Troy, N.Y. and was an Episcopal priest. Troy, N.Y. was in the jurisdiction of Bishop Benjamin Moore, Clement Clarke Moore's father, who was the Bishop of (the state of) New York.
• * A letter to Moore from the publisher states "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city."
• Although Moore wrote darker poems, Nissenbaum argues that it could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas.

• 'To Southey' is one of the poems written by Moore that has been used as comparison to 'A Visit From St. Nicholas' but the subject matter is Clement's mourning of his wife's and two of their childrens's agonizing deaths and therefore does not compare in any way to a Christmas theme. Ironically, Moore's second eldest child, Charity, died days before her 14th Christmas. By the age of 51, Clement Clarke Moore was a widowed father of the remaining seven children in 1830. The Moore and Sackett families are related.

• Clement Clarke Moore's father, Bishop Benjamin Moore, who died in 1816 before this poem was written, knew Alexander Hamilton and sadly read him his last rites. The two men are buried near each other in the Trinity Church graveyard on Wall Street. Hamilton was greatly responsible for retaining Bishop Moore as the interim president of King's College, renamed Columbia after the Revolutionary War. Hamilton had been a student, there. Benjamin Moore also assisted in the inaugural ceremonies for George Washington. Columbia University's archives can verify this information, as can the historians from Trinity Church. Also referenced, the book, Rev. John Moore of Newtown, Long Island and Some of His Descendants, 1903. Although out of print, it is available via Higginson's Book Company.

• Nowhere in the poem does Moore refer to Sinterklass or Santa, he always says 'St. Nicholas' or 'St. Nick.' He was writing about December 24th, the night before Christmas, before Christmas Day, which is and was then celebrated in this country and in England on December 25th.

• If the poem is about the night before Christmas (December 24th) it would not make sense for it to be about Sinterklass, who by colonial Dutch tradition still travels by ship from Spain with a character named Black Pete to celebrate and leave children gifts in their shoes on the 6th of December. Moore's poem depicts St. Nicholas, whom he imagined flew through the sky in a sleigh on December 24th (Christmas Eve) with the help of reindeer named in many of the languages spoken by this classical professor. Clement Clarke Moore's children had part Dutch blood per his wife, a VanCourtlandt descendant. VanCourtlandt was the middle name of one of their nine children. Clement's beloved wife would have influenced their family's holiday celebrations and traditions and possibly the use of the Old Dutch word Donder vs. the German Donner.

• "Jelly" as in "a bowl full" was an English name for a dish that resembled Jello, in that it contained gelatin. It could be savory or sweet and served with a meal or as a dessert option. Not likely a Dutch traditional food on the holiday table. And not what one puts on their bread.

• "Sash" is a term used in England to describe a curtain.

• "Dash away" is an English term for having to make a quick departure, i.e."must dash!" is used currently in conversation.

• In a lithograph of Chelsea, the house in which the poem takes place, the physical description of the house matches, i.e., the porch and the shutters.

• "Dread" as in "I had nothing to dread" has been used in another Moore poem.

• "Stockings hung by the chimney" reflect the English tradition for leaving stockings out for Saint Nicholas to fill during his visit to one's house on Christmas Eve.

• To this day, many people in England wish each other a 'Happy Christmas,' as seen in current Christmas greeting cards.

Evidence to support Livingston as author

• Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem. [link]
• Use of anapaestic rhyme scheme and metre consistent with Livingston.
• Use of Dutch "Dunder and Blixem" - Livingston's mother was Dutch.
• Phraseology consistent with other Livingston poems.
• Livingston wrote cheerful poems, Moore typically more miserable ones.
• Moore is known to have falsified authorship on another occasion.
• Moore claimed that only two changes were introduced in the first printing, yet it differs from his own on 23 points.

References

External links

• [Free audiobook] from [LibriVox]
• [Article questioning Moore's authorship] at Urban Legends Reference Pages
• [Text attributed to Livingston, at University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online.]
• [Moore version online at Bartleby]
• [eText] of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, at Project Gutenberg

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.