Anna Laetitia Waring

Welsh poet Anna Laetitia Waring was born today in 1823 (some sources say 1820) in the small town of Plas-y-Felin, near Neath, where she spent her early life. Her family were Quakers, but in 1842 she joined the Church of England, reportedly due to her interest in the Anglican sacraments. She also learned Hebrew so that she could read those scriptures in the original.

Never married, she and her family moved to Bristol around 1850, where she took an interest in prison reform, visiting prisoners and volunteering with the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society.

She began writing hymns while still in her teens, but her first collection, Hymns and Meditations, was not published until 1850 (perhaps thanks to her improved access to publishers), consisting of nineteen texts. Another collection, Additional Hymns (1858) was eventually incorporated into later editions of her first book with some other texts for a final total of thirty-nine hymns. In 1911, the year after Waring's death, Hymns and Meditations was reissued again with a new section written by her friend Mary S. Talbot titled In Remembrance of Anna Laetitia Waring which included some of her secular poetry and brief biographical information, little of which had been available before.  Also, like many of the women who wrote hymns over the centuries, we have no portrait or photograph of Waring.

Today's hymn appeared in her first collection under the heading "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. (Psalm 23:4)".  It's not a paraphrase, but was certainly inspired by that psalm - the Presbyterian Handbook to the Hymnal (1935) calls it "steeped in the spirit of the psalter."  A chart at Hymnary.org shows that this text became even more popular in the twentieth century, appearing in at least 495 hymnals to date, by their (incomplete) count.

In heavenly love abiding, 
No change my heart shall fear.
And safe in such confiding, 
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar around me, 
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me;
How can I be dismayed?

Wherever God may guide me,
No want shall turn me back.
My Shepherd is beside me, 
And nothing can I lack.
With wisdom ever waking, 
Our path is ever clear.
We know the way we’re taking,
We walk without a fear.

Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen.
Bright skies will soon be over me, 
Where threat'ning clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path to life is free.
My Savior has my treasure,
And ever walks with me.

Anna Laetitia Waring, 1850; alt.
Tune: NYLAND (7.6.7.6.D.)
Traditional Finnish melody

In his Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian writes of Waring's work: "Her hymns are marked by great simplicity, concentration of thought, and elegance of diction."

Samuel Miller Waring (1792-1827), an uncle of hers, had followed the same path of Quakerism to Anglicanism and also wrote hymns and poems, some collected in Sacred Melodies (1826).



Nine Years Ago: Anna Laetitia Waring

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was born today in Massachusetts, where he spent most of his life. Both his birthplace in Haverhill and the home where he lived for nearly sixty years in nearby Amesbury are preserved as historical sites (an honor not bestowed on most hymnwriters). Of course, few of his poems were intended as hymns, but hymnal editors from his own time to the present have captured stanzas from his poetry, assembling them into texts for congregational singing.

As recounted here before, his literary career was encouraged by William Lloyd Garrison, who published many of his early poems and the two men bonded over their commitment to the abolitionist cause. In 1833 Whittier was a delegate to the first convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society, where he signed its declaration (written by Garrison), an act that he was to recall as one of the most significant events of his life. He later served as the Society's secretary, and over the next few years he traveled throughout the northern states lecturing against slavery. Confrontations with proponents of slavery were many, and some were violent.  In 1838 he moved to Philadelphia to edit the Pennsylvania Freeman, a prominent abolitionist newspaper. The paper moved its offices to Pennsylvania Hall, a newly built meeting place for abolitionist organizations, but the building was burned in a riot only three days after its grand opening.

By 1839 the abolitionist cause was beginning to fracture over various disagreements. Whittier broke with Garrison, who insisted that the country would only change by a great tide of moral persuasion. Whittier believed that the cause had to be politically viable for any change to happen, and he joined the Liberty Party in 1840. He continued to write poetry for the anti-slavery cause, both before and after emancipation finally occurred, though most of his later verse (from which the hymns are primarily taken) was written on other themes.

Whittier's Quakerism was more than a religious feeling; he dressed in traditional Quaker garb and conversed in the 'simple speech' of the Quakers (though it may sound quite 'formal' to us today). It's probably natural that he would have disliked the boisterous revival services and camp meetings held by the evangelical preachers of his day, and his most well-known hymn appears to be a reaction against such worship. Today's hymn, like his others, is taken from a longer poem, The Brewing of Soma (first published in the Atlantic Monthly in April 1872), which begins with a description of the rites of early Hindu worship, where the priests concoct a formula which produces 'sacred madness' and 'a storm of drunken joy.'  He goes on to link this practice to various other sects and cultures through history before bringing it home to his readers:

And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfil;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathern Soma still!

The final six stanzas of the poem are still often sung today, giving us a model for worship that Whittier preferred, incorporating the Quaker values of silence, reverence, and peace.

Dear God, the Source of humankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of thy call,
As noiseless let thy blessing fall
As fell thy manna down.

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1872; alt.
Tune: REST (Maker) (8.6.8.8.6.)
Frederick C. Maker, 1887

It should probably be remarked that some of the denominations that Whittier was chastising would eventually include this hymn in their own worship without any compunction.  The preceding stanzas are all but unknown today. Some contemporary commentary also believes this hymn to be relevant in our time because of some connection to 'drug culture,' but again, almost anyone singing this hymn today knows nothing about its origins.

The original first line of the hymn, Dear Lord and Father of mankind, has been altered in a few different ways in recent years. The two most popular seem to be Dear God, embracing humankind, and Dear Lord, who loves all humankind, but the line above predates those, taken from the hymnal project I worked on from 1989-1992.

Composer Frederick C. Maker wrote this tune specifically for this text when it appeared in the Congregational Church Hymnal (1887). Though that book was published in London for use in the UK, REST is now considered to be the American tune, and English hymnals prefer REPTON by C.H.H. Parry (though the final two lines in each stanza have to be repeated unnecessarily).




Eight Years Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier

Six Years Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier

One Year Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier

December 17  is the birthday of Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts.  His childhood was spent working on the family farm and he was largely self-educated.  Later influenced by the poetry of Robert Burns, he took to writing his own verses, and was first published by editor William Lloyd Garrison in the Newburyport Free Press in 1825.  Garrison sought out Whittier and encouraged him to pursue a career in journalism, and the two men would later share a strong commitment to abolition and other social causes.  Whittier edited several newspapers and journals and eventually became one of the foremost American poets of his day.

Despite Whittier's claim of rarely writing verse for congregational singing, hymnal editors from his time to the present have frequently adapted sections of his longer poems into hymns.  Today's text comes from his poem The Eternal Goodness which was in twenty-two stanzas.  Various combinations of stanzas from this poem have appeared in hymnals for the last century and a half, and this is one more arrangement.

Within the maddening maze of things,
When tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

And if my heart and flesh are weak
To bear an untried pain,
The bruised reed God will not break,
But strengthen and sustain.

No offering of my own I have,
Nor works my faith to prove;
I can but give the gifts God gave,
And plead that love for love.

And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar;
No harm from God can come to me
On ocean or on shore.

I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
God's mercy underlies.

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1867; alt.
Tune: ABIDING GRACE (C.M.)
John S. Camp, c.1905

I think there's something about this text which speaks to the stress and activity that can overcome us at this time of year.

Composer John Spencer Camp (1858-1946) was a church musician in Hartford, Connecticut and probably wrote more tunes than this one, though it's the only one available at the Cyber Hymnal site.



Seven Years Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier

Five Years Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier 

Phebe Hanaford

Phebe Hanaford, born today in 1829, was not only the fourth woman ordained in the United States (in the Universalist Church) but was also an author, activist, poet and hymnwriter.

Born into a Quaker family, she was aware from a young age that women in that tradition were allowed to preach during services, but she tried to put those ideas aside when she married Joseph Hanaford in 1849 and agreed to worship in his Baptist church.  A few years later she learned that Lucy Stone, a prominent activist for abolition and women's rights, was speaking at a local church.  Knowing that her husband would not approve of her attending the lecture, she stayed outside the church but managed to listen anyway.

Following her ordination in 1868, she led churches in the Massachusetts towns of Hingham and Waltham, but when she was called to a Universalist congregation in New Haven, Connecticut, her husband refused to go with her and they separated.  Ellen Miles, a Sabbath school teacher in Phebe's Waltham congregation, accompanied her to New Haven and throughout the rest of her long career, often being called the "minister's wife."

Today's hymn, probably written in the 1860s, not long before Phebe decided to pursue ordination, takes its theme from Exodus 15:20-21, the Song of Miriam, which follows the story of the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt. It's not quite a paraphrase of that passage, but takes it as a springboard of sorts.

Miriam’s song we’ll echo now,
Singing praises to the Lord;
Who has triumphed gloriously,
Shout the victory of our God!

Sound the timbrel! Loud and high!
Let the song of praise ascend!
Sound the timbrel, far and nigh!
God is our unchanging friend!

When the Red Sea tide o’erwhelmed
Israel’s foes in that great hour
While they sought the promised land,
Then was seen th’Almighty’s power.

Ever thus shall righteousness
Over wrong victorious be,
And the Lord shall be proclaimed
Ruler over land and sea.

Phebe Hanaford. c.1866; alt.
Tune: EVELYN (7.7.7.7.)
Emma L. Ashford, 1905

Poor health and the loss of Ellen Miles, her companion of more than forty years, prevented Phebe from remaining active in her causes in the final years of her life.  She was living unhappily with her granddaughter's family in rural upstate New York, far from the cities and organizations she had loved and led.  Though she had worked for years in the cause of women's suffrage, there is no evidence in local voting records that she cast a vote in 1920, the first national election following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.  At age 91, she was unable to travel to the polls on her own. Fortunately, New York State allowed women to vote a few years earlier, and she did take advantage of that limited opportunity.

She died on June 2, 1921, one month after her 92nd birthday, and was buried in an unmarked grave next to her daughter Florence Hanaford Warner.  There were some attempts over the years to have a headstone erected for her, but that did not happen until 1998, when the headstone (pictured below) was funded by the Unitarian Universalist Women's Heritage Society.


P.S. - As we were discussing Abraham Lincoln's funeral services two days ago, it should be noted that Hanaford also wrote a hymn for an ecumenical memorial service for the President at the Old South Congregational Church in Reading, Massachusetts.  This is the first stanza:

Hushed today are sounds of gladness
From the mountains to the sea;
And the plaintive voice of sadness
Rises, mighty God, to thee.

Combined choirs from the Congregational, Baptist and Universalist churches sang Phebe's hymn to the tune MOUNT VERNON by Lowell Mason (finally, a historical record of a tune!).  She later published it in the closing chapter of her best-selling biography of Lincoln.



***UPDATE***  This hymn is now posted on Facebook with words and music together.  Go to "Conjubilant W. Song" and click on "Photos" -- it's in the Downloadable Hymns section.


Six Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Five Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Three Years Ago: Phebe Hanaford

Bernard Barton

Today is the birthday of Bernard Barton, known as England's 'Quaker Poet' in the early nineteenth century. He was the author of several volumes of hymns and poems mostly written during his long employment as a bank clerk.  

He was educated at a Society of Friends boarding school in Ipswich, but left school at fourteen to serve an apprenticeship in a shop.  He eventually married the shop owner's niece Lucy in 1807, but a year later she died giving birth to their first child, also named Lucy.  In 1809 Barton took a post in the Dykes and Samuel Alexander’s Bank, where he remained for the next forty years.  The Guide to the Pilgrim Hymnal (1966) quotes one source as saying "So punctual and methodical was he that, as he returned from the office each midday, the housewives knew it was the correct time to put their potatoes into the water as he passed their doors..."

His first book of poetry, Metrical Effusions, was published in 1812, and eventually he became friends and correspondents with several of the well-known poets of his day.

Fear not, Zion's sons and daughters,
Perfect love shall cast out fear;
When you pass through deepest waters,
I, your God, will still be near.

In the furnace of affliction,
I will save you from despair;
Love divine shall bring conviction
That my peace is 'round you there.

Never shall you be forsaken,
Nothing shall have pow'r to harm;
While your faith remains unshaken,
In my mighty outstretched arm.

Heights nor depths shall from me sever
Those whom Christ has brought to me;
I will keep you safe forever
And your God and Savior be.

Bernard Barton, 1826; alt.
Tune: WYCHBOLD (8.7.8.7.)

Walter G. Whinfield, 1902



Two Years Ago: Bernard Barton

Bernard Barton

Bernard Barton (January 31, 1784 - February 19, 1849) was known in England as the Quaker Poet, years before John Greenleaf Whittier gained that attribution in this country.

Born in Carlisle, in northwest England, into a Quaker family, he eventually settled on a career in banking. His first book of poetry, Metrical Effusions, was published in 1812. Several succeeding volumes over the next sixteen years would help him establish friendships with other famous poets of the day such as Robert Southey and Charles Lamb. It was Lamb who gave him some advice when Barton was considering leaving his position at Alexanders' Bank in Suffolk to support himself through his writing. "Keep to yous bank, and the bank will keep you." So Barton would remain at that same Suffolk bank until his death. After 1828 his books of poetry became less frequent until 1845, when his Household Verses appeared to great acclaim and success.

Many of Barton's poems that later appeared in hymnals are from his Devotional Verses (1826). Today's hymn was probably his most well-known, which Hymnary.org finds in more than 200 hymnals, but only two published since 1978. Still, it's probably remembered by many.

Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace
Our path when wont to stray;
Stream from the fount of heav’nly grace,
Brook by the traveler’s way.

Bread of our souls whereon we feed,
True manna from on high;
Our guide and chart wherein we read
Of realms beyond the sky.

Pillar of fire, through watches dark,
Or radiant cloud by day;
When waves would break our tossing bark,
Our anchor and our stay.

Yet to unfold thy hidden worth,
Thy myst'ries to reveal,
That Spirit which first gave thee forth,
Thy volume must unseal.

God, grant us all aright to learn
The wisdom it imparts,
And to its gracious teaching turn
With simple, childlike hearts.

Bernard Barton, 1826
Tune: EVAN (C.M.)
William Henry Havergal, 1846

I think that, in some places today, hymns about the Scriptures themselves are sometimes seen as "singing to the Bible" and are less likely to be found in hymnals. But here I think you could make a broader case; that Barton was talking about the concept of the Word of God and not, strictly speaking, about words on a page.

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Quaker poet and activist John Greenleaf Whittier, born today in 1807, did not consider himself a hymn writer.

I am really not a hymnwriter, for the good reason that I know nothing of music. Only a very few of my pieces were written for singing. A good hymn is the best use to which poetry can be devoted, but I do not claim that I have succeeded in composing one.

However, hymnal editors since his time have not shared his opinion, and even today most hymnals you will see contain his work. It's true that most of his hymns were not written as such, and are often taken from longer poems. Sometimes the same poem yields different hymns, or at least different arrangements of stanzas. John Julian, in his Dictionary of Hymnology (1907), lists 33 hymn texts by Whittier and traces their provenance from the original poems. Today, at Hymnary.org, which has references from hundreds more hymnals since Julian's work was compiled, they list 165 texts, and the number may even be larger.

This hymn is derived from Whittier's 1859 poem My Psalm, which is seventeen stanzas long, and has birthed several different arrangements of stanzas.

All as God wills, who wisely heeds
To give or to withhold,
And knoweth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.

That more and more God's Providence
Of love is understood,
Which makes the springs of time and sense
Bright with eternal good --

That care and trial seem at last,
Through memory's sunset air,
Like mountain-ranges overpast,
In purple distance fair;

That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in a psalm,
And all the angles of its strife
Slow rounding into calm.

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1859; alt.
Tune: ST. FULBERT (C.M.)
Henry J. Gauntlett, 1849

John Julian also wrote that Whittier's hymns were "characterized by rich poetic beauty, sweet tenderness, and deep sympathy with human kind."

A new book, Congregational Hymns from the Poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier (2009) by Samuel J. Rogal delves into this subject further, and you can see a preview of it online thanks to Google Books.


Two Years Ago: John Greenleaf Whittier

All Speech Flow to Music (Day Twelve)

On the last day of Christmas we look back to the message of the angels, but also forward to apply it to our own time.

The Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier was primarily known for his anti-slavery activities; they were the focus of his poetry and his editorship of The National Era and other abolitionist journals. Some biographical sources suggest that Whittier's political activity ceased after the Civil War, but this text from 1873, adapted from his poem A Christmas Carmen, shows his support for the cause of peace.

Sound over all waters, reach out from all lands,
The chorus of voices, the clasping of hands;
Sing hymns that were sung by the stars of the morn,
Sing songs of the angels when Jesus was born!

Sing concord of nations! in chorals of love
Sing out the war-vulture and sing in the dove,
The long night is ending and dawn has begun;
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun!

Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace;
East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease
Sing the song of great joy from the angels begun,
All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one!

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1873; adapt.
Tune: LANSING (11.11.11.11.)
Charles H. Gabriel, 1912

This tune by Charles Gabriel first appeared in the Presbyterian Psalter (1912) used with a paraphrase of Psalm 24, Ye gates lift your heads, the glad summons obey. Whittier's text has also been sung to ST DENIO and CRADLE SONG.

In 1982, the text was set to music by composer Paul Halley, organist and music director at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in honor of Coretta Scott King, who was coming to preach at the cathedral. The piece was first sung on that occasion, and on others since.

Finally, here we are at the end of our twelve days of Christmas music. Hope you have found something interesting that you had not seen before. It's been fun for me but I'm not sure I'll jump to do another long daily series anytime soon!

John Greenleaf Whittier

Apparently continuing John Week at C.W.S. (John the Baptist, John Chandler, John Ellerton...) we come to John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 - September 7, 1892), born into a Quaker family in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

When he was fifteen, a teacher loaned him a volume of poetry by Robert Burns, which he later credited with inspiring his own poetic efforts. A few years later, one of his sisters submitted a poem of his to the Free Press, a weekly paper published by William Lloyd Garrison. The poem was printed, launching Whittier's literary career as well as a long-lasting friendship with Garrison, strengthened by both men's commitment to the cause of abolition.

Whittier was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and became editor of the National Era in 1847, one of the most influential abolitionist newspapers. His poetry and articles were also frequently published in the Atlantic Monthly.

Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson were the first editors to turn Whittier's poetry into hymns in their two hymnals, but other hymnals were soon using his texts as well. The hymns that are attributed to Whittier are often excerpted from longer poems, such as this one, six verses taken from the original thirty-seven verses of his poem Our Master.

Immortal love, forever full,
Forever flowing free,
Forever shared, forever whole,
A never-ebbing sea!

Our outward lips confess the name
All other names above;
Love only knows from whence it came,
And comprehends but love.

We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring you, Jesus, down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For you no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet,
A present help you'll be;
And faith still has its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

The healing of your seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch you in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

The letter fails, the systems fall,
And every symbol wanes;
The Spirit overshadowing all,
Eternal Love remains.

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1856; alt.
Tune: BISHOPTHORPE (C.M.)
Jeremiah Clarke, 17th c.

Whittier remains in many hymnals today. Just this last Sunday, a Whittier hymn sing was held at the Friends Meeting House in Amesbury, Massachusetts, where he worshipped.

More Voices Found: Anna Laetitia Waring

Welsh poet Anna Laetitia Waring was born on this day in 1823. Raised a Quaker, she converted to Anglicanism in 1842. Like most hymnwriters of her day, she was highly educated and learned Hebrew in order to read the daily psalter in that language. She published two popular collections of verse and many of the poems were later published in various hymnals. Her first book, Hymns and Meditations, was published in 1850, went through many editions, and is now available online through Google Books.

I wasn't expecting to do two of these in a row, but it was a surprise to find that Waring's most familiar hymn, In heavenly love abiding, is not included in The Hymnal 1982 (it was in the earlier Episcopal hymnals of 1940 and 1916, as well as hymnals of many other denominations).

Here's one that may owe more to Waring's Quaker background, and would probably not be considered sufficiently doctrinal to appear in many hymnals. It's short, but I like it.

Tender mercies, on my way
Falling softly like the dew,
Sent me freshly every day,
I give thanks to God for you.

Though I have not all I would,
Though to greater bliss I go,
Every present gift of good
To Eternal Love I owe.

Source of all that comforts me,
Well of joy for which I long,
Let the song I sing to thee
Be an everlasting song.

Anna Laetitia Waring, 1850; alt.
Tune: VIENNA (7.7.7.7.)
Justin Heinrich Knecht, 1797