plete. It is, perhaps, an open question whether the whole of such a poem should be given in a hymn book for the sake of completeness. The omitted verses are as follows: "3 Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word; But, as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord, Come, not to sojourn, but abide, with me. "4 Come not in terrors, as the King of kings; But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings; "5 Thou on my head in early youth didst smile; XVII GOD BLESS OUR NATIVE LAND THE TEXT OF THE HYMN I God bless our native land; When the wild tempests rave, Ruler of wind and wave, Do Thou our country save By Thy great might. 2 For her our prayer shall rise On Him we wait; Thou who art ever nigh, Guarding with watchful eye, To Thee aloud we cry, God save the State. [The first five lines are here attributed to the Rev. Charles Timothy Brooks as author or translator, (about) 1832-35; the remainder to Dr. John Sullivan Dwight, (about) 1844] NOTE. Of this hymn there can be no authoritative text. That here printed is taken from Lowell Mason's The Psaltery, 1845. Two earlier texts are quoted in the Study. THE STORY OF THE HYMN The one thing about this little hymn that seems certain is its excellence. And its excellence is not lessened by the fact that the hymn is cosmopolitan. It claims, indeed, to be translated from the German. Whether or not that is so, all who speak English, be they American or British, can sing it side by side. The meaning of the hymn is plain to all who love their native land. The authorship of the hymn is much less certain, and has all the interest of a puzzle. (1) Mrs. Henshaw's Claim.-One day, in 1895, the writer saw, on a friend's table at Germantown, a little book of poems by Sarah E. Henshaw. Turning the leaves, his eye caught this hymn printed among the other poems of that lady as her own. Greatly surprised, he inquired of his friend who she was. He learned that she was a lady of high character, of New England lineage, who had lately died in California, and was the true author of this hymn. The writer at once started an investigation. He secured from Mrs. Henshaw's family a copy of a letter in which she had made her own statement of her claim as follows: "I wrote the verses just after the fall of Fort Sumter. I was then living in Illinois. I learned from the papers that the Rhode Island volunteers had gone through to the front, singing 'John Brown's Body,' and that Governor Buckingham had put the organization of our Connecticut regiments in charge of my uncle, General Dan. Tyler. With a heart on fire, and desirous that the Connecticut soldiers should also have something to sing, I wrote the verses in question. That every one might know the music, I wrote them for "the air 'God Save the King.' I sent them by post to my uncle with much hesitation, because he would probably think it all nonsense. Neither did I attach my name to the verses: I wrote at the caption, By a daughter of Connecticut.' I kept no copy, sent them to no publisher, heard nothing of them, took it for granted that my uncle had thrown them aside. "After the war I moved out here [Oakland]. I drove down the street one Fourth of July to hear the schoolchildren sing. They sang my verses-those verses! I looked at the programme; there were the lines. 'Why! I wrote that!' I explained to [a friend]. As I wrote them, the poem contained several verses. Here were only two. But I was glad to get them. They were the first and the last. In writing them, I felt much dissatisfied with the last line of the last verse, viz.: 'God save the State'; and had earnestly cast about without avail for a stronger climax to match my rhyme. But here it was, just the same. I smiled at the recollection, as I carefully put the programme into my reticule." (2) Mr. Brooks's Claim.-Mrs. Henshaw's letter was written to the Rev. Charles W. Wendte. Now it happened that Mr. Wendte had been the friend of the Rev. Charles T. Brooks, a poet and translator of much ability, pastor for many years of a Unitarian church at Newport. While sympathizing with Mrs. Henshaw's wish to establish her authorship, Mr. Wendte writes her: "My dear old friend, Mr. Brooks, whose memoir I wrote, called it his. He wrote so much that it is not at all unlikely he was wrong." Mr. Brooks certainly claimed the hymn. In 1875 his friend Dr. Putnam printed the following statement, ap When the night am cool the meadows, Circled in with sylvan green, Fragrant odors, tenders hadows, Twilight conjures vir the Scene; Lulls the heart in dreams Elysian Like an infart Aired که On the weary mortal's vision smithing to the gates of day. Night comes down - the landscape darkes Side by side are star &stor_ Greater light & losses Sparkle, blitter near & gleam from for: blitter here where waves are steaky Gleam above in agure night; _ Holy quiet, rapture seating, Reigns the moon in full-sted light umprinted translation of the opening Lyrie Scene in the 2" Part of Faust, by] [From an Charles I. Booty Newport Jany. 51/25 AN AUTOGRAPH POEM OF MR. BROOKS |