Morning Has Broken

DESCRIPTION: "Morning has broken, like the first morning.... Praise for the springing fresh from the Word." "Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven." "Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning." Praise for God giving us the day
AUTHOR: Words: Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Songs of Praise)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "Morning Has Broken" (notes only)
DT, MORNGBR
ADDITIONAL, Percy Dearmer, words editor; Ralph Vaughn Williams and Martin Shaw, music editors, _Songs of Praise_, Revised and Enlarged Edition, Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1932, #30, "(no title)"
NOTES [261 words]: This was apparently commissioned by Percy Dearmer for Songs of Praise (so Averill). The tune, "Bunessan," is said to be an "Old Gaelic Melody." It hadn't been especially popular. Then Cat Stevens took this song and changed everything.
Eleanor Farjeon was the daughter of Benjamin J. Farjeon (1838-1903), who, although born in Britain, spent several years in Australia and New Zealand. He came to Dunedin from Australia in 1861, having been sent by a Melbourne paper to write stories about the goldfields there. A compositor as well as writer, he was soon brought on in both capacities at the Otago Daily Times, and rose to an ownership position. Around the same time, he wrote a novel, Shadows in the Snow, which was quite popular in New Zealand. One of the locals reported that he sent a copy to Charles Dickens for an opinion, and Dickens must have liked it, because Farjeon packed up and headed back to London to be a writer (Reed, pp. 273-274). It was only after his return that his daughter Eleanor, and several other children, were born.
Benet, p. 366, does not mention Benjamin Farjeon in its biography of Eleanor, instead reporting that she was the "Granddaughter of the actor Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905). English writer famous for her juveniles. Her brother, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon... is a skilled English mystery story writer." (The later editions of Benet cut her entry, so apparently they are largely forgotten.) A number of her songs seem to have been taken up by Girl Scouts, although few seem to have been popular enough to be remembered. - RBW
Bibliography

Benet: William Rose Benet, editor, The Reader's Encyclopdedia, first edition, 1948 (I use the four-volume Crowell edition but usually check it against the single volume fourth edition edited by Bruce Murphy and published 1996 by Harper-Collins)
Reed: A. H. Reed, The Story of Otago: Age of Adventure, A. H. and A. W. Reed (Wellington, New Zealand), 1947

Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF539M

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