Be Thou My Vision (Lyrics) | SDA Hymn

Mary Elizabeth Byrne (born in Dublin on July 2, 1880), an authority Lon ancient Irish religious poetry, coauthored the Old and Mid-Irish Dictionary for the Royal Irish Academy. She translated this poem, which dates from the eighth century, and published it as prose in the Irish journal, Erin, Vol. II. She died in Dublin on January 19, 1931. Eleanor Henrietta Hull, born January 15, 1860, in Manchester, brilliant author, and founder of the Irish Text Society, reduced the 16 prose couplets to 12 rhymed ones and published them in her Poem Book of the Gael, 1912. She died at Wimbledon, January 13, 1935. Most hymnals print only eight of the couplets, arranged in four stanzas. Two other couplets form the omitted third stanza:

Be Thou my battle-shield, my sword for the fight, Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight;
Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high Tower: Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

SLANE is the name of a hill near Tara in County Meath, Ireland, where it is said Saint Patrick (c. 389-461) lit the Paschal fire on Easter Eve, going against the Druid priests’ order that no one light the fire before theirs was lit. The melody comes from an Irish folk song, “With My Love on the Road,” published by Patrick Weston Joyce in Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909. The melodic structure is ABCD, that is, all four lines are different, with no repetition as found in most hymns. Typically Irish is the wide range and the final ending on three repeated tonic notes. The tune was first used with these words in the English Church Hymnary, 1927, as arranged by David Evans (1847-1948; see Biographies), the great Welsh music teacher and composer. SLANE is also used for SDAH 320, “Lord of Creation,” with different harmony. (hymnsforworship.org)

Francesco Blackmore, pianist
joyandcrownministry@gmail.com