Anna Laetitia Waring

Anna Letitia Waring (or Anna Laetitia Waring) (19 April 1823 – 10 May 1910) was a Welsh poet and hymn-writer.[1][2]

She was born at Plas-y-Felin, Neath, the daughter of Elijah Waring (d. 1857).[1] Her family were Quakers, but she became an Anglican and was baptised into the Church of England in 1842, in Winchester. [1] Literary interests were fostered by members of her family as her uncle Samuel Miller Waring (also an Anglican) and her father Elijah both published works of literature.[1] Following in her family's footsteps, it seems natural that 'verse-writing was always a pleasant diversion to her.'[3] She learned Hebrew in order to study the Old Testament in the original.[1]

In 1850, Anna published her first work, Hymns and Meditations. Her best-known hymns include "Father, I know that all my life", "Go not far from me, O my Strength", "In heavenly love abiding" and "My heart is resting, O my God".[4] She became involved in philanthropic work, particularly as a supporter of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. According to her friend, Mary S. Talbot, Waring 'visited in the prisons of Bridewell, and at Horfield, Bristol, for many years. To one who spoke to her of the painfulness of such work she answered, "It is like watching by a filthy gutter to pick out a jewel here and there, as the foul stream flows by".'[3] She died unmarried in Clifton, Bristol.[1][2]

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Scott, Rosemary (2004). "Waring, Anna Letitia (1823–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ian Lancashire (ed.). "Selected Poetry of Anna Letitia Waring (1823-1910)". Representative Poetry Online.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Richard Arnold, English Hymns of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology. (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), 127.
  4. ↑ Eclectic Ethereal Encyclopaedia
  5. ↑ Joanne Shattock, The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 1800-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 689-690.

References