Project Gutenberg 2004-10-01 Public domain in the USA. 63 Browning, Robert 1812 1889 Christmas Eve Reading ease score: 64.6 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. "Christmas Eve" by Robert Browning is a poem written in the mid-19th century, specifically during the Victorian era. This work is a dramatic monologue that captures the thoughts and experiences of an individual who reflects on spirituality and religious experiences on Christmas Eve. It explores themes of faith, doubt, and the nature of worship, contrasting different forms of religious expression. The poem opens with the speaker standing outside a quaint chapel, reluctant to enter due to the harsh weather and the congregation's apparent exclusiveness. As he reluctantly joins the assembly, he grows increasingly disillusioned with the preacher's sermon, which he views as lacking substance. The speaker escapes into the outer world, where he encounters a transformative vision of a moon-rainbow that offers him a deep spiritual insight. This moment leads him to realize the infinite love of God, prompting him to return to the chapel with a renewed perspective. Ultimately, he concludes that genuine worship transcends the confines of specific religious practices and resides instead in a personal relationship with the divine. Browning's portrayal of faith is both critical and celebratory, inviting readers to contemplate their own beliefs and expressions of spirituality. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Christmas -- Poetry PR Text Christmas Browsing: Literature Browsing: Poetry 92752 92753 2024-10-03T10:12:39.844284 2023-10-03T09:08:55.982578 text/html text/html 96922 2014-03-15T21:59:22 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 33428 2014-03-15T22:03:20 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 105594 2024-10-03T10:12:45.840257 application/epub+zip 104465 2024-10-03T10:12:42.713260 application/epub+zip 99929 2024-10-03T10:12:41.491279 application/epub+zip 200940 2024-10-03T10:12:47.866270 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 192123 2024-10-03T10:12:45.072266 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 159751 2022-09-03T12:56:37.763048 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 77343 77224 2024-10-03T10:12:39.236371 2023-10-03T09:08:55.576570 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 77195 2014-03-15T21:59:14 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 31548 2014-03-15T22:03:20 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19509 2024-10-03T10:12:47.994231 application/rdf+xml 12654 2024-10-03T10:12:42.038259 image/jpeg 3499 2024-10-03T10:12:41.767250 image/jpeg 104840 2024-10-03T10:12:39.854262 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia