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Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame
Author: Alexander Pope Appears in 275 hymnals Matching Instances: 274 Lyrics: 1. Vital spark of heavenly flame,
Quit, O quit this mortal frame!
Trembling, hoping, lingering flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
2. Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite—
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
3. The world recedes—it disappears;
Heav’n opens on my eyes; my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory!
O death! where is thy sting? Used With Tune: PILOT
Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame
VITAL SPARK
Appears in 2 hymnals Matching Instances: 1 Incipit: 33221 23536 55332 Used With Text: Vital spark of heavenly flame
VITAL SPARK
DYING CHRISTIAN
Appears in 4 hymnals Matching Instances: 1 Incipit: 51123 21554 35616 Used With Text: Vital spark of heavenly flame
DYING CHRISTIAN
Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame
Author: Alexander Pope Hymnal: The Cyber Hymnal #7079 Lyrics: 1. Vital spark of heavenly flame,
Quit, O quit this mortal frame!
Trembling, hoping, lingering flying,
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
2. Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite—
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
3. The world recedes—it disappears;
Heav’n opens on my eyes; my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory!
O death! where is thy sting? Languages: English Tune Title: PILOT
Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame
Vital spark of heavenly flame
Author: Alexander Pope Hymnal: The Baptist Hymn Book #1254 (1859)
Vital spark of heavenly flame
Vital spark of heavenly flame
Author: Alexander Pope Hymnal: Songs for the Sanctuary; or Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship (Baptist Ed.) #1226 (1869)
Vital spark of heavenly flame
Alexander Pope
1688 - 1744 Author of "Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame" in The Cyber Hymnal Alexander Pope was born in London, in 1688. His parents were Roman Catholics. He had a feeble constitution, was deformed in person, and attained the age of only fifty-six. He early acquired the means of independence by his literary gifts, and purchased his celebrated villa at Twickenham, whither he went to reside at the age of thirty. Of his many published works, his translation of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" of Homer has given him the greatest reputation. As an English satirist, also, he stands very high. Nearly all his works, however, are imitations. He died at Tickenham, in 1744.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872
========
Pope, Alexander, the poet, son of a wholesale linen merchant in Lombard Street, London, was born in Plough Court, Lombard Street, May 21, 1688. His father being a Roman Catholic, he was first placed under the charge of Father Taverner, who taught him the rudiments of Greek and Latin. Later he attended a school at Winchester, and then at Hyde Park Corner. When about twelve he retired with his parents to Binfield, in Windsor Forest, and from thenceforth his education was mainly in his own hands. His subsequent success as a writer and poet is a matter of history, and has been dealt with in detail by Dr. Johnson in his Lives of the Poets, and by others. He died May 30, 1744, and was buried in a vault in Twickenham Church. For distinct public use, so far as we are aware, Pope wrote no hymns. His "Messiah"; his "Universal Prayer"; and his "Vital Spark" (q.v.), have been made use of for congregational purposes, but as a Roman Catholic he had no object in writing a hymn in a language which, at that time, his Church would refuse to use. In modern hymn-books his name is identified with the following pieces:--
1. Father of all, in every age. Universal Prayer. The Lord's Prayer. This Prayer was published in 1738, as a conclusion to his Essay on Man, in 13 st. of 4 1. Warburton in his Advertisement of the 1748 ed. of the Essay, says:—
"Concerning the Universal Prayer which concludes the Essay, it may be proper to observe that some pas¬sages in the Essay having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author composed that Prayer as the sum of all, to show that hi a system was founded in Freewill, and terminated in Piety: that the First Cause was as well the Lord and Governor as the Creator of the Universe; and that by submission to His will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along with a blind determination; but a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight and reality, the Poet chose for his model The Lord's Prayer, which of all others best deserves the title prefixed to his Paraphrase."
The title here referred to is "The Universal Prayer, Deo Opt. Max." The hymn is found in common use in the following forms:—
(1.) Father of all in every age. This is an abbreviated form, and has been in use, especially in Unitarian hymnbooks, from an early date.
(2.) Father of all, [and] Thou God of love. This cento was given in 6 st. of 4 1. in the 1815 edition of Cotterill's Selections, No. 2; again in the 1819 ed., 141; in Stowell's Psalms & Hymns, 1831, No. 179; and again in later collections.
(3.) Not to this earth's contracted span. In Collyer's Collection 1812, No. 629, in 4 st. of 4 1., and others.
(4.) Teach me to feel another's woe. Also in Collyer's Collection, 1812, No. 630, in 4 st. of 4 1., and others.
(5.) Thou Great First Cause, least understood. Also in Collyer's Collection, 1812, No. 628, in 4 st. of 4 1., and later hymnals.
(6.) When I am right Thy grace impart. Given in Kennedy, 1863, No. 1166.
2. Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song. The Messiah. In No. 378 of the Spectator for Wednesday, May 14, 1712, Addison gave this poem with the introduction :—
"I will make no apology for entertaining the reader with the following poem, which is written by a great genius, a friend of mine, in the country, who is not ashamed to employ his wit in the praise of his Maker."
Then follows the poem with the heading, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, composed of several passages of Isaiah the Prophet. Written in imitation of Virgil's Pollio." It consists of 107 lines. When republished by Pope this heading was expanded into a paragraph as an "Advertisement." As a poem it is unknown to the hymn-book; but from it the following centos have passed into common use:--
(1.) As the Good Shepherd tends his fleecy care. This was given in Collyer's Collection, 1812, No. 626, in 6 st. of 4 1., and has been repeated in later hymnals, but usually in an abridged form.
(2.) From Jesse's root, behold a branch arise No. 624 in Collyer's Collection, 1812, in 5 st. of 4 1.; and again in later hymnals.
(3.) Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers. No. 625 in Collyer's Collection, 1812, in 4 st. of 4 1.; in Bishop Heber's posthumous Hymns, &c, 1827, p. 106; and again in later collections.
(4.) Rise crowned with light, imperial Salem rise. In the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, No. 687, in 3 st. of 8 1., and several later collections.
(5.) The Saviour comes! by ancient seers foretold. In Mercer's Church Psalm & Hymn Book, 1864, and others.
It may be noted that 1. 46 of The Messiah reads in the original "He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes." This was altered by Pope at the suggestion of Steele, made to Pope in a letter dated June 1, 1712, to "From every face He wipes off every tear." This latter is the poet's authorized reading, is given in his Works, and is found also in the book form reprints of the Spectator.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Alexander Pope
John E. Gould
1821 - 1875 Person Name: John Edgar Gould Composer of "PILOT" in The Cyber Hymnal John Edgar Gould USA 1821-1875. Born in Bangor, ME, he became a musician. He managed music stores in New York City and Philadelphia, PA., the latter with composer partner, William Fischer. He married Josephine Louisa Barrows, and they had seven children: Blanche, Marie, Ida, John, Josephine, Josephine, and Augusta. He compiled eight religious songbooks from 1846 thru 1869. He died while traveling in Algiers, Africa, and was buried in Philadelphia, PA.
John Perry
John E. Gould
Edward Harwood
1707 - 1787 Person Name: Edward Harwood, 1707-1787 Composer of "THE DYING CHRISTIAN" in Book of Hymns and Tunes, comprising the psalms and hymns for the worship of God, approved by the general assembly of 1866, arranged with appropriate tunes... by authority of the assembly of 1873 Edward Harwood (of Darwen) (1707–1787) was an English composer of hymns, anthems and songs. His setting of Alexander Pope's The Dying Christian (Vital spark of heav'nly flame) was enormously popular at one time and was widely performed at funerals.
Edward Harwood was born at Hoddlesden, near Darwen, Lancashire, in 1707. His early training was as a hand-loom weaver, but he subsequently became a professional musician in Liverpool. His first collection of psalmody, A set of hymns and psalm tunes, was published in London in 1781 and a second collection, entitled A Second Set of Hymns and Psalm Tunes/ was published at Chester in 1786. He died in 1787.
Harwood's setting of Pope's ode "Vital spark of heav'nly flame" was first published in Harwood's A set of hymns and psalm tunes: it is written in the style of a glee, and in the original publication is written for the most part for three voices (two trebles and bass), with a fourth (tenor) part being added for the last few bars only. It was, however, often arranged for the more usual four part-choir. The piece was very popular in the first half of the 19th century, being widely sung among Anglicans, Methodists and dissenters, and Lightwood noted in 1935 that it 'certainly had a long and prosperous run, and even now it is not quite extinct'. However, it was not always a great favourite with the clergy, whose objections were mainly to do with the text, which is not explicitly religious (also, it's a poem written by a Catholic, after the last words of the Emperor Hadrian).
--en.wikipedia.org/wik
Edward Harwood
