An amazing fact about this poem is that Newton was a slave ship captain who became a minister. He claimed god had saved him from a wreched life. The music that is put to the poem is most-likely written by slaves. These facts have a great impact on the meaning of the words of the famous hymn.
Poems in History
Tears Fall In My Heart by Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) Tears Fall In My Heart by Paul Verlaine Tears fall in my heart Rain falls on the town; what is this numb hurt that enters my heart? Ah, the soft sound of rain on roofs, on the ground! To a dulled heart they came, ah, the song of the rain! Tears without […]
The Hippopotamus by T. S. Eliot
The Hippopotamus ?????? Similiter et omnes revereantur Diaconos, ut ?????? mandatum Jesu Christi; et Episcopum, ut Jesum ?????? Christum, existentem filium Patris; Presbyteros ?????? autem, ut concilium Dei et conjunctionem ?????? Apostolorum. Sine his Ecclesia non vocatur; de ?????? quibus suadeo vos sic habeo. ?????? S. IGNATII AD TRALLIANOS. ?????? And when this epistle is […]
Farewell to the Muse by Sir Walter Scott
? Sir Walter Scott???( 1771 ? 1832) Farewell to the Muse ?by Sir Walter Scott? ? ?? ? ? Enchantress, farewell, who so oft hast decoy’d me, At the close of the evening through woodlands to roam, Where the forester, ‘lated, with wonder espied me Explore the wild scenes he was quitting for home. Farewell […]
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,? The shrill, demented choirs of […]
THE SICK ROSE by William Blake
William Blake THE SICK ROSE ? ? O rose, thou art sick! ???? The invisible worm, ?? That flies in the night, ???? In the howling storm, ?? Has found out thy bed ???? Of crimson joy, ?? And his dark secret love ???? Does thy life destroy.
IN THE MILE END ROAD by Amy Levy
IN THE MILE END ROAD ?by Amy Levy How like her! But ’tis she herself, Comes up the crowded street, How little did I think, the morn, My only love to meet! Who else that motion and that mien? Whose else that airy tread? For one strange moment I forgot My only love was dead.
Prime by Amy Lowell
Prime ?by Amy Lowell ? Your voice is like bells over roofs at dawn When a bird flies And the sky changes to a fresher color. ? Speak, speak, Beloved. Say little things For my ears to catch And run with them to my heart.
The Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson??( 1803 ? 1882) The Concord Hymn Ralph Waldo Emerson (1837) By the rude bridge that arched the flood, ???? Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled; Here once the embattled farmers stood; ???? And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; ???? Alike the conqueror silent […]
Portent by William Carlos Williams
Portent by William Carlos Williams Red cradle of the night, In you The dusky child Sleeps fast till his might Shall be piled Sinew on sinew. Red cradle of the night, The dusky child Sleeping sits upright. Lo how The winds blow now! He pillows back; The winds are again mild. When he stretches his […]
Day That I Have Loved by Rupert Brooke
Day That I Have Loved by Rupert Brooke Tenderly, day that I have loved, I close your eyes, And smooth your quiet brow, and fold your thin dead hands. The grey veils of the half-light deepen; colour dies. I bear you, a light burden, to the shrouded sands, Where lies your waiting boat, by wreaths […]
A Poison Tree by William Blake
A Poison Tree by William Blake ? I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with […]
Rhapsody on a Windy Night by T. S. Eliot
Rhapsody on a Windy Night by T. S. Eliot Twelve o’clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Disolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations, Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of […]
Sea Lily by H.D.
SEA LILY by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) Reed, slashed and torn, but doubly rich? such great heads as yours drift upon temple-steps, but you are shattered in the wind. Myrtle-bark is flecked from you, scales are dashed from your stem, sand cuts your petal, furrows it with hard edge, like flint on a bright stone. […]
Over Hill, Over Dale by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare?(1564-1616) Over Hill, Over Dale “Over Hill, Over Dale” Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire. I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moone’s sphere. And I serve the Fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green; The cowslips tall her pensioners be, In […]