Murillo's Lesson

DESCRIPTION: "As down the lone valley with cedars o'erspread, From war's dread confusion I pensively strayed." "Perfumes of Eden slowed sweetly along; A voice as of angels enchantingly sung; Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise...."
AUTHOR: Dr. Timothy Dwight (source: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #89, "Columbia" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Roud #17927
NOTES [252 words]: According to Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, the two texts he has are both shortened versions of Dr. Timothy Dwight's poem "Columbia," which have been turned from a patriotic to a religious theme. It seems to me that both themes are still strongly present. The verse preserved by Morris is the last, with his "chorus" being close to the first verse:
Collumbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world and the child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name;
Be freedom and science and virtue thy fame.
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 316-317, Timothy Dwight "is the most important name in early American hymnology, as it is also one of the most illustrious is American literature and eduction. He was b[orn] at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1752, and graduated at Yale College, 1769.... [After 1777 he] became for a short time a chaplain in the United States Army, but passed on in 1783 to Fairfield, Connecticut, where he held a pastorate, and taught in an Academy, till his appointment, in 1795, as President of Yale College....
"Dwight's lyrics are all professedly psalms, but they are by no means literal versions." I recognize none of the items Julian lists as being from his pen. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr088

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