I was choosing hymns for today's worship a few days ago and came across "Come, ye disconsolate" in the Lent section of The Book of Praise. I knew and sang this hymn as a child and I enjoy the old words and expressions it contains. The words "disconsolate" and "languish" are not exactly part of everyday speech in 2009, but they carry a weight of expression that other words do not. Another old term is "mercy seat" referring to the "altar" as a place to kneel in prayer.
Whenever I see, hear or sing this hymn I think of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In the story, Amy and Laurie have just returned from Europe and the family is all gathered for an evening of food and conversation. As the time together comes to a close, Jo proposes "our sing, in the good old way, for we are all together again once more... They were not all there. But no one found the words thoughtless or untrue; for Beth still seemed among them..." Amy begins to sing. "The room was very still, when the clear voice failed suddenly at the last line of Beth's favorite hymn. It was hard to say - 'Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.'"
Aside from Christmas carols which are quoted in novels from time to time, I can't think of another instance of a hymn being quoted in literature as part of the story. If you have an example, please comment and let me know!
4 comments:
I don't have another example for you, AuntE. I just wanted to say that Little Women is my all-time favorite novel and I well remember that scene. Its so very moving and I think of it in relation to hearing or singing that hymn myself.
Oooh! Another LMA fan. Thank you, Dorothy.
I really can't think of much that's 20th century offhand that isn't satirical or critical in its use. Most recent example in my head right now: I teach an 18th Century novel called The Interesting Narrative of
the Life of Olaudah Equiano which was a key text in the abolitionist movement written by a former slave. I teach it as part of the genres of spiritual autobiography/conversion narrative, picaresque novel, slave narrative, etc., and the conversion part of the novel refers quite specifically to Methodism and the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
(Specifically the line "O to grace how great a debtor / Daily I'm constrain'd to be.")
I googled the title and found that the words were written in
1758 by a Methodist minister who later became a Baptist...the novel was published in 1789, so the words were quite new at the time. Equiano is thought to have undergone his conversion experience sometime around 1774.
Although the truth of some aspects of the narrative have been questioned recently, I find the account quite moving because I have been part of a denomination with links to Methodism and because parts of it really do ring true for me as a conversion narrative.
Merrem, Thank you for your example. This sounds like something I would like to read.
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