Winter

Top Text Author Text Info Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

Stern winter throws his icy chains

Author: Anne Steele
Tune: [Stern winter throws his icy chains]
Published in 108 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Stern winter throws his icy chains
Encircling nature round;
How bleak, how comfortless the plains,
Late with gay verdure crowned.

2 The sun withdraws his vital beams,
And light and warmth depart;
And drooping, lifeless nature seems
An emblem of my heart.

3 Return, O blissful Sun, and bring
Thy soul-reviving ray:
This mental winter shall be spring,
This darkness turn to day.

4 Oh, happy state! divine abode!
Where spring eternal reigns,
And perfect day, the smile of God,
Fills all the heavenly plains.

5 Great Source of light, thy beams display,
My drooping joys restore!
And guide me to the seats of day,
Where winter frowns no more.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #985

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

^ top