As a member of a community choir, I can’t be alone in finding O Little Town of Bethlehem very difficult to sing this year (Letters, 13 December). The line “How still we see thee lie”, in the midst of horrific news from the West Bank and Gaza, brings me to tears. As we sing on Tuesday 19 December in Truro Cathedral for the ShelterBox carol service, I will have to hope that the beauty of the sound of hundreds of voices will help to counteract the despair we all feel at seeing so many lying so still.
Sally Smith
Redruth, Cornwall
• I nodded in agreement with Paul McGilchrist’s letter that the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem has a lovely first verse. Alas, for the second line, “How still we see thee lie”: I heard a BBC radio report that Christmas has been cancelled in the town, with no public celebrations. I wonder how many school or church nativity plays have gone ahead despite the conditions in the place where “The hopes and fears of all the years are met…”
Rev John Midgley
Skipton, North Yorkshire
• The American tune for O Little Town of Bethlehem, St Louis by Lewis H Redner, is much nicer – more mysterious and atmospheric. It was one of my favourite carols growing up. What a disappointment it was at my first Christmas in England to find that several lovely carol tunes had disappeared.
Jeanne Warren
Garsington, Oxford
• Re Paul McGilchrist’s praise for O Little Town of Bethlehem, I checked out the lyrics, but found myself singing the song to the tune of Labour’s anthem The Red Flag, which seems to work quite well. Is this a taste of things to come?
Jan Galiotto
Palmetto, Florida, US
• The best line of O Little Town of Bethlehem is about the incorrigible politician: “How still we see thee lie.”
David Hitchin
Seaford, East Sussex
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