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| James Russell Lowell |
The hymn Once to Every Soul and Nation can be found on page 273 of Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal. It was written by the nineteenth century poet James Russell Lowell in response to a request from his friend and fellow abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier who wrote to him: "Give me one that shall be to our cause what the song of Rouget de Lisle was to the French Republicans." Lowell wrote an eighteen verse poem with the title The Present Crisis.
Although Lowell's words were not destined to have as great an
influence as "La Marsellaise" had for France, it contributed
significantly to the antislavery movement when it was written, and to
the civil rights movement a hundred years later. It's original goal was
to oppose the annexation of Texas as a state allowing slavery. Lowell
believed that through his poetry he could play a role as a
prophet and critic of society. In the twentieth century the poem
become a source for quotations in the speeches and sermons of Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Thank you for some history of this hymn. I listened to the hymn and felt sad. The women in the audience appeared to be dressed in saaris. So I read the comments below the video and sure enough the Gospel Quintet group performing the hymn has published hymns in English, Tamil and Malayalam.
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Gospel Quintet does a brilliant presentation of the hymn " Once To Every Man And Nation" for Classic Hymns album "Lead Kindly Light". Recorded live at St. Andrews Kirk Chennai in 2010.
Leader and Key Board : Edwin Roy
With aim to revive hymns Classic Hymns has so far done over 100 hymns of which 5 albums are in English, 2 in Tamil and 1 in Malayalam. It has also done a special Tamil song Neer Mathram Poodhum.
Martin Luther King, Jr., "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?" [20:38 minutes]
ReplyDeleteThis is of course Black History Month. I listened to the speech directly linked above. But I found this speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. interesting too not only in part because I had never heard it before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmtOGXreTOU
On the internet we find so much evidence of our diversity - our music, our dress, our food, our speech - but under the surface we are one people - trying to find the common bonds which allow us to work together.
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