Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

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Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is a popular hymn with words taken from a poem by Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It is sung to the tune Repton by C. Hubert H. Parry, a composer best known for his setting of William Blake’s poem Jerusalem. The hymn was recently voted second in BBC One Songs of Praise’s poll to find the nation’s favourite hymn.[1]

Contents

[edit] Hymn Text

The text set is the following, often the fourth verse is omitted:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
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 numb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!

[edit] The Brewing of Soma

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Brewing of Soma is the Whittier poem (1872) from which the hymn is taken. Soma was a sacred ritual drink in Vedic religion, going back to Proto-Indo-Iranian times (ca. 2000 BC), possibly with hallucinogenic properties.

The storyline is of Vedic priests in dark, cold forests and entering other alternative levels of consciousness. The purpose is a tremendous, religious experience and contact with divinity. It is after setting that scene that Whittier draws his lesson: "Dear Lord, and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways..." The verses taken from the hymn show the futility of trying to find God through "experience" or 'faith"and ask God for forgiveness for being petty.

The poem opens with a quote from the Rigveda[citation needed], attributed to Vasishtha.

"These libations mixed with milk have been prepared for Indra:
offer Soma to the drinker of Soma." (trans. Max Muller).

[edit] Hymn Tunes used

This hymn is generally sung to the tune Repton. This tune by Hubert Parry was originally written in 1888 for the contralto aria 'Long since in Egypt's pleasant land' in his oratorio Judith. In 1924 Dr George Gilbert Stocks, director of music at Repton School, set it to 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind' in a supplement of tunes for use in the school chapel. Despite the need to repeat the last line of words, the tune Repton provides an inspired matching of words and music.

Other tunes it can be sung to are:

[edit] Serenity (song by Charles Ives)

The American composer Charles Ives took stanzas 14 and 16 of The Brewing of Soma (O Sabbath rest.../Drop Thy still dews...) and set them to music as the song Serenity. However, it is quite likely that Ives extracted his two stanzas from the hymn rather than the original poem. Published in 114 songs in 1919 the first documented performance was by mezzo-soprano Mary Bell and pianist Julius Hijman.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/27/hymn.shtml BBC Songs of Praise poll
  2. ^ http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music/ci-s8s.htm
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