Clement Clarke Moore

Clement Clarke Moore

Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College (now Columbia University) and at General Theological Seminary; but is best known as the credited author of A Visit From St. Nicholas (more commonly known today as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas).

Quotes

• 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
  Not a creature was stirring, — not even a mouse;
  The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
  In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
  • A Visit from St. Nicholas, l. 1. Published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached; later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore and included in an 1844 anthology of his works

• The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
  While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
  • A Visit from St. Nicholas, l. 5

• "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,
  "On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;
  "To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
  "Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
  • A Visit from St. Nicholas, l. 21

• He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
  And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
  A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
  And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
  His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
  His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
  His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
  And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
  The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
  And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
  He had a broad face and a little round belly
  That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
  • A Visit from St. Nicholas, l. 33

• But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
  "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
  • A Visit from St. Nicholas, l. 55

External links

• A Visit from Saint Nicholas, courtesy of Poets.org
• Peter Christoph, "Clement Moore revisited", 1982
• Biography of Moore at University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online.
• Urban Legends - Clement Clarke Moore: The Reluctant Mythmaker
• Free audiobook of Twas the Night Before Christmas from LibriVox
• Works by Clement Clarke Moore at Project Gutenberg