Cecil Frances Alexander

Cecil Frances Alexander (April 1818 – 12 October 1895[1]) was an Anglo-Irish hymnwriter and poet. Amongst other works, she wrote "All Things Bright and Beautiful", "There Is a Green Hill Far Away" and the Christmas carol "Once in Royal David's City."

Cecil Frances Alexander
Undated photograph of Alexander
Born
Cecil Frances Humphreys

April 1818
Dublin, Ireland
Died12 October 1895 (aged 77)
Derry, Ireland
OccupationHymnwriter, poet
Notable work
Hymns for Little Children

Biography

Alexander was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, the third child and second daughter of Major John Humphreys of Norfolk (land-agent to 4th Earl of Wicklow and later to the second Marquess of Abercorn), and his wife Elizabeth (née Reed).[2] She began writing verse in her childhood, being strongly influenced by Dr Walter Hook, Dean of Chichester. Her subsequent religious work was strongly influenced by her contacts with the Oxford Movement, and in particular with John Keble, who edited Hymns for Little Children, one of her anthologies. By the 1840s she was already known as a hymn writer and her compositions were soon included in Church of Ireland hymnbooks. She also contributed lyric poems, narrative poems, and translations of French poetry to Dublin University Magazine under various pseudonyms.[3][lower-alpha 1]

Her book Hymns for Little Children reached its 69th edition before the close of the 19th century. Some of her hymns, such as "All Things Bright and Beautiful", "There Is a Green Hill Far Away" [lower-alpha 2] and the Christmas carol "Once in Royal David's City", are known by Christians the world over, as is her rendering of "Saint Patrick's Breastplate".[4] She issued Verses for Holy Seasons (1846), The Lord of the Forest and His Vassals (1847) – a children's allegory – and Hymns for Little Children (1848).

In Strabane in October 1850 she married the Anglican clergyman William Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh. Her husband also wrote several books of poetry, of which the best known is St. Augustine's Holiday and other Poems. She was six years older than the clergyman, causing great family concern.[3] Her daughter, Eleanor Jane Alexander, was also a poet.

Alexander was involved in charitable work for much of her life. Money from her first publications had helped build the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, which was founded in Strabane in 1846. The profits from Hymns for Little Children were also donated to the school. She was involved with the Derry Home for Fallen Women, and worked to develop a district nurses service. She was an "indefatigable visitor to poor and sick".[3] She was criticised, however, for her endorsement of the class system, as expressed, for example, in the original third verse of "All Things Bright and Beautiful":

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high and lowly,
And ordered their estate.

Usually this verse is omitted from performances of the hymn.[5][6][7]

Seven hymns penned by Alexander were included in the 1873 issue of the Church of Ireland Hymnal, and eighteen of her works were contained in A Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1889). They continue to be well-accepted, as nine of her works were contained in both the 1960 and the 1987 editions of the Hymnal. A posthumous collection of her poems was published in 1896 by William Alexander, titled Poems of the late Mrs Alexander.

Stained glass window in memory of Cecil Frances Alexander, in St Columb's Cathedral, Derry, Northern Ireland.

In 1913, after the death of her husband in 1911, a stained glass window by James Powell and Sons in her memory was installed in the north vestibule of St Columb's Cathedral in Derry, Northern Ireland, financed by public subscription.[8][9] The three lights of the windows refer to three of her hymns and show corresponding scenes: "Once in Royal David's City", "There Is a Green Hill Far Away", and "The Golden Gates Are Lifted Up". One of her beautiful works was called the Fieldmouse. It is a 4 stanza poem.

Alexander died at the Bishop's Palace in Derry and was buried in Derry City Cemetery. Her husband is buried beside her in a grave which was restored by the Friends of St Columba's Cathedral in 2006. An Ulster History Circle commemorative blue plaque was unveiled in her memory on 14 April 1995 at Bishop Street in the city.[10][11]

Lukas Media LLC (FishFlix), released the full-length documentary Friends in Jesus DVD, The stories and Hymns of Cecil Frances Alexander and Joseph Scriven in 2011. The 45 minute documentary movie talks about the life of Cecil Frances Alexander and her influence on Christian hymns.[12]

Further reading
  • Ernest James Lovell: A Green Hill Far Away: the Life of Mrs C.F. Alexander (Dublin & London: Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1970); ISBN 0281026335
  • Valerie Wallace: Mrs Alexander: A Life of the Hymn-Writer Cecil Frances Alexander 1818–1895 (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1995); ISBN 1-874675-46-5

Notes
  1. Her "Burial of Moses" appeared anon. in Dublin University Magazine (1856) causing Tennyson to profess it one of the few poems of a living author he wished he had written.[3]
  2. With music by William Horsley

References
  1. Cousin, John W. (John William) (21 August 2004). "A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature". Retrieved 4 June 2019 – via Project Gutenberg.
  2. "Cecil Frances Alexander". Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  3. "Cecil Frances Alexander". Poem Hunter. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  4. an English rendering of the ancient Gaelic hymn...Alexander did not read Gaelic but worked from several literal and unmusical English translations sent to her by H.H. Dickinson, dean of the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle. Jones, Gloria G. (1999). "Cecil Frances Alexander". In Thesing, William B. (ed.). Dictionary of Literary Biography. 199. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. pp. 8–12. ISBN 0787618543.
  5. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/l/l/allthing.htm Archived July 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Oremus Hymnal: All things bright and beautiful". Oremus.org. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  7. Archived April 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "The Late Archbishop and Mrs. Alexander: Memorial Windows in Derry Cathedral". Irish Times. Dublin. 22 March 1913. p. 10. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  9. Day, J. Godfrey F.; Patton, Henry E. (1932). The Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 36–37.
  10. Sweeney, Eamon. "Derry City Cemetery Series: The best hymn writer in the English language lies buried on a 'green hill' in Derry". Derry Now. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  11. "The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  12. "Friends in Jesus - Documentary". FishFlix. 15 March 2017.
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