The Magnitude of Meekness (Day One)

Advent's waiting is over and the first day of Christmas is here. I hope it is a joyful and grateful season for everyone who visits here.

You may recall that last year we had some discussion here about the dozen or so Christmas carols and hymns that “everyone” agrees should be sung during the season. Hymnblogger and commenter Leland even listed them at one of his blogs. I also happened to post one that I thought was just a bit obscure and everyone told me that, of course, they knew it after all.

So, a challenge of sorts. There are twelve days of Christmas, as everyone knows. I'm going to try for one hymn of carol each day, but not necessarily one of the dozen de rigueur (or what would be left for next year?). Over the years, hundreds of text writers and composers have written carols and hymns for Christmas only to see them ignored for the popular standards. Look through any older hymnal and you'll probably see Christmas selections you've never heard before. Look through any newer hymnal and you'll find things you'll probably never sing. Maybe I'll pick some of those discarded pieces up and dust them off over the next several days.

There will be some favorites interspersed, so you needn't go off and ignore me for the next while if you're not a fan of the obscure. I do hope that anything I refurbish will have something worthwhile about it (even if you don't agree). And, after writing about the Bishop of Croydon the other day, I have to watch out for the scourge of sentimentalism.

English poet Christopher Smart, from whose poetry a few hymns have been derived, is certainly not sentimental in any way. This Christmas text explores the contradictions of the Incarnation; the Promised One of the ancient prophets coming to earth not as a mighty conqueror but as a human baby. And yet, the power is present. God who made the earth has come among us on this day.

Where is this stupendous stranger?
Prophets, shepherds, kings, advise;
Lead me to my Savior's manger,
Show me where the Christ-child lies.

O Most Mighty! O Most Holy!
Far beyond the seraph's thought:
Art thou then so weak and lowly
As unheeded prophets taught?

O the magnitude of meekness!
Worth from worth immortal sprung;
O the strength of infant weakness,
If eternal is so young!

God all-bounteous, all-creative,
Whom no ills from good dissuade,
Is incarnate, and a native
Of the very world God made.

Christopher Smart, 1765; alt.
Tune: SUSSEX (8.7.8.7.)
English folk melody
arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906

Smart's original second line was “Swains of Solyma, advise,” but that name for Jerusalem was probably outdated even in his time. The tune SUSSEX we have seen before, one of the folk tunes arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams for his English Hymnal.

As you can imagine, I rarely get to sing this one. But I keep hoping for its rediscovery.


One Year Ago: With the Oxen Standing By

Christopher Smart

Poor Christopher Smart. Probably the most widely-known fact about him is that he spent a good part of his adult life locked up in an asylum. Nowadays his doctor would have found the right dosage of mood-altering pharmaceu-ticals and he'd be just fine.

Smart, born on this day in 1722, wrote two epic poems which have kept his literary reputation alive to this day. Jubilate Agno, not published in full until 1939, was used as the basis for Benjamin Britten's cantata Rejoice in the Lamb. His most significant work, A Song to David (eighty-five verses long) is described by one source as having "a poetic quality which eludes critical analysis." Some of the verses were adapted into a hymn which first appeared in the English hymnal Songs of Praise in 1925.

We sing of God, the mighty source
Of all things; the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,
All period, power and enterprise
Commences, reigns and ends.

The world, the clust'ring spheres were made;
The glorious light, the soothing shade,
Dale, meadow, grove, and hill;
The multitudinous abyss,
Where secrecy remains in bliss,
And wisdom hides her skill.

Glorious the sun in mid career;
Glorious the assembled fires appear;
Glorious the comet's train:
Glorious the trumpet and alarm;
Glorious th' almighty stretched-out arm;
Glorious the enraptured main:

Glorious, most glorious, is the crown
Of Christ, that brought salvation down
As told, the Promised One;
Seers that stupendous truth believed,
And now the matchless deeds achieved,
Determined, dared and done.

Christopher Smart, 1763; alt.
Tune: MAGDALEN COLLEGE (8.8.6.D.)
William Hayes, 1774

One additional verse appears in some hymnals and online sources:

Tell them I AM, the Lord God said
To Moses, while earth heard in dread,
And, smitten to the heart,
At once, above, beneath, around,
All nature without voice or sound
Replied, O God, thou art.

I like this one, especially the second half, but I don't think it completely fits with the theme of creation in the other four verses.

Now, some might fantasize about a hymn of eighty-five verses, but some of them simply wouldn't work as congregational song. A few chosen at random:

Control thine eye, salute success,
Honor the wiser, happier bless,
And for thy neighbor feel;
Grutch not of Mammon and his leav'n,
Work emulation up to heav'n
By knowledge and by zeal.

(grutch?)

With vinous syrup cedars spout;
From rocks pure honey gushing out,
For adoration springs;
All scenes of painting crowd the map
Of nature; to the mermaid's pap
The scaled infant clings.

(um, no)

For adoration, incense comes
From bezoar, and Arabian gums;
And from the civet's fur:
But as for prayer, or e'er it faints,
Far better is the breath of saints
Than galbanum and myrrh.

(You can't have to look up three or more words in a single verse. And could anyone possibly sing about the breath of saints?)

A Song to David was not included in a 1791 edition of Smart's collected poems because it was thought to provide evidence of his insanity. Twentieth century composer William Albright wrote an oratorio based on the work. (I have a recording of it somewhere, but don't remember much about it.)