Thomas Moore

Moore, Thomas, son of John Moore, a small tradesman at Dublin, was born in that city, May 28, 1779, educated at a private school and Trinity College, Dublin; read at the Middle Temple for the Bar; held a post under the Government in Bermuda for a short time, and died Feb. 26, 1852. His Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence were published by Lord John Russell in 1855. In that work every detail concerning himself and his numerous publications, most of them of high poetical merit, will be found. His connection with hymnody is confined to his Sacred Songs, which were published in 1816, and again in his Collected Works, 1866. These Songs were 32 in all, and were written to popular airs of various nations. Of these Songs the following have passed into a few hymnbooks, mainly in America:—

1. As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean. Private Prayer.
2. But who shall see the glorious day. The Final Bliss of Man.
3. Come, ye disconsolate, where'er you languish. Belief in Prayer. In American hymnbooks the text is sometimes as in T. Hastings and Lowell Mason's Spiritual Songs, 1831. This may be distinguished from the original by the third stanza, which reads, "Here see the Bread of life; see waters flowing," &c.
4. Fallen is thy throne, 0 Israel. Israel in Exile.
5. Like morning when her early breeze. Power of Divine Grace.
6. 0 Thou Who driest the mourner's tear. Lent.
7. Since first Thy word [grace] awaked my heart. God All and in All.
8. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea. Deliverance of Israel.
9. The bird [dove] let loose in eastern skies. Prayer for Constancy.
10. The turf shall be my fragrant shrine. The Temple of Nature. From this "There's nothing bright above, below" is taken.
11. Thou art, 0 God, the Life and Light. God, the Light and Life of Men.
12. Were not the sinful Mary's tears? Lent.
Of these hymns No. 11 has attained the greatest popularity.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)