Peter Warlock

The Five Lesser Joys of Mary

The Five Lesser Joys of Mary begins with a conventional Nativity scene - the ox and the ass for warmth, the star, the Wise Men - to verses attributed by Warlock to one Daniel Lawrence Kelleher, editor of Christmas Carols (No. 18 in the second series of Augustan Books of English Poetry) where the anonymous verses were published. The fourth stanza recounts Jesus 'Confounding the doctors, the poor little Child, ' while the fifth carries us to Calvary and a singularly lame conclusion as Mary 'Saw Jesus droop over and lie very still, She thought of the good times they had long ago When He'd droop in her arms and she'd sing husheenlo. ' Strophically composed, with small variations, Warlock's tenderness seems generic.