“I Vow To Thee, My Country”.
Available On YouTube
“I Vow To Thee, My Country” is a British Hymn
created in 1921, when a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice
was set to music by Gustav Holst.
The origin of the Hymn’s text is a poem by diplomat Sir Cecil Spring Rice, which he wrote in 1908 or 1912, entitled Urbs Dei (“The City of God”) or “The Two Fatherlands”.
The poem described how a Christian owes his loyalties
to both his Homeland and the Heavenly Kingdom.
In 1908, Spring Rice was posted to the British Embassy in Stockholm. In 1912, he was appointed as Ambassador
to the United States of America, where he influenced the administration of Woodrow Wilson to abandon neutrality
and join Britain in the War against Germany.
After the United States entered the War, he was recalled to Britain. Shortly before his departure from the United States
in January 1918, he re-wrote and renamed “Urbs Dei”, significantly altering the first verse to concentrate on the themes of love and sacrifice, rather than “the noise of battle” and “the thunder of her guns”, creating a more sombre tone in view of the dreadful loss of life suffered in The Great War.
The first verse in both versions invokes Britain (in the
1912 version “Britannia with Sword and Shield”, in
the second version simply called “My Country”,
the second verse “the Kingdom of Heaven”.
According to Sir Cecil’s grand-daughter, the re-written
verse of 1918 was never intended to appear alongside the first verse of the original poem, but was replacing it; the original first verse is nevertheless sometimes known
as the “rarely-sung middle verse”.
The text of the original poem was sent by Spring Rice
to William Jennings Bryan in a Letter shortly before
his death in February 1918.
The poem circulated privately for a few years,
until it was set to music by Holst, to a tune he adapted
from his “Jupiter” [Editor: In “The Planets Suite”]
to fit the words of the poem.
It was performed as a unison song with orchestra
in the Early-1920s, and it was finally published
as a Hymn in 1925 in the “Songs of Praise” Hymnal.
Lyrics.
I vow to thee, my Country, all Earthly things above,
entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
that lays upon the Altar the dearest and the best;
the love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
that lays upon the Altar the dearest and the best;
I vow to thee, my Country, all Earthly things above,
entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
And there’s another Country I’ve heard of long ago,
most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
we may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
and Soul by Soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
and her ways are ways of gentleness
and all her paths are peace.
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
and Soul by Soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
and her ways are ways of gentleness
and all her paths are peace.
“I Vow To Thee My Country”.
Available On YouTube
