Poem: Antiphon

Let All the World in Ev'ry Corner Sing, My God and King!

Antiphon is a poem by George Herbert (1593–1633). It was published posthumously in 1633 as part of the collection, The Temple. In 1911, the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) published Five Mystical Songs, a setting of five of Herbert's poems from The Temple. Williams' Antiphon (featured in the following video), along with three other poems from Five Mystical Songs: The Call, Easter, and Love are included in the Religious Poems Appendix of the Divine Office (1974).


From Five Mystical Songs - "Antiphon" begins at 7:40

ANTIPHON I by George Herbert, 1633 (Public Domain)

Chorus: Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
                         My God and King.

Verse: The heav’ns are not too high,
           His praise may thither flie:
           The earth is not too low,
           His praises there may grow.

Chorus: Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
                        My God and King.

Verse: The church with psalms must shout,
           No doore can keep them out:
           But above all, the heart
           Must bear the longest part.

Chorus: Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
                         My God and King.

Poem: The Dial

Sun Dial, 1871 / St. Vigeans Church, Scotland - Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Dial is by the Anglican Bishop, Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626). He headed the committee of scholars that translated Genesis to 2nd Kings in the King James Version of the Bible. The Dial was part of a manuscript of his own personal devotions for daily prayer that was published posthumously in 1675 as Preces Privatae (Private Devotions). It is included in the Poems for All Seasons Appendix of the Divine Office (1974).

THE DIAL by Lancelot Andrewes, 1675 (Public Domain)

Thou who hast put the times and seasons in thine own power: grant that we make our prayer unto Thee in a time convenient and when Thou mayest be found, and save us.

Thou who for us men and for our salvation wast born at dead of night: give us daily to be born again by renewing of the Holy Ghost, Till Christ be formed in us unto a perfect man, and save us.

Thou who very early in the morning while the sun was yet arising didst rise from the dead: raise us up daily unto newness of life, suggesting to us ways of repentance which Thyself knowest, and save us.

Thou who at the third hour didst send down thy Holy Ghost on the apostles: take not away the same Spirit from us, but renew Him daily within us, and save us.

Thou who at the sixth hour and on the sixth day didst nail the sins of the world with Thyself on the cross: blot out the handwriting of our sins which is against us and taking it out of the way, save us.

Thou who at the sixth hour didst let down a great sheet from heaven to earth, a figure of thy Church: receive us up into it, sinners of the gentiles, and with it receive us up together into heaven, and save us.

Thou who at the seventh hour didst will that the fever should leave the noblemans son: if aught abide of fever or of sickness in our soul, take it away from us also, and save us.

Thou who at the ninth hour for us sinners and for our sins didst taste of death: mortify in us our earthly members and whatsoever is contrary to thy will, and save us.

Thou who hast willed the ninth hour to be an hour of prayer: hear us while we pray in the hour of prayer and make us to obtain our prayer and our desires, and save us.

Thou who at the tenth hour didst will thine apostle, whenas he found thy Son, to declare with great joy WE HAVE FOUND THE MESSIAH: make us also in like sort to find the Messiah and when He is found in like sort to rejoice, and save us.

Thou who at eventide didst will to be taken down from the cross and buried in the tomb: take away our sins from us and bury them in thy sepulchre, covering with good works whatsoever we have committed ill, and save us.

Thou who didst vouchsafe even at the eleventh hour of the day to send men into thy vineyard and to fix a wage, notwithstanding they had stood all the day idle: do unto us like favour and, though it be late, as it were about the eleventh hour, accept us graciously when we return to Thee, and save us.

Thou who at the hour of supper didst will to institute the most sacred mysteries of thy body and blood: make us mindful of the same and partakers thereof, and that, never unto judgement but unto remission of sin and unto acquiring of the bequests of the new testament, and save us.

Thou who late in the night didst by thy breathing confer on thine apostles the authority as well to forgive as to  retain sins: make us partakers of that authority, yet that it be unto remission, not unto retention, o Lord,
and save us.

Thou who at midnight didst awaken David thy prophet and Paul the apostle to praise Thee: give us also songs by night and to remember Thee upon our beds, and save us.

Thou who with thine own mouth hast avouched that at midnight the Bridegroom shall come: grant that the cry THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH may sound evermore in our ears, that so we be never unprepared to meet Him, and save us.

Thou who by the crowing of a cock didst admonish thine apostle and make him to return to penitence: grant us also at the same admonition to do the same, to wit to go forth and weep bitterly the things wherein we have sinned against Thee, and save us.

Thou who hast foretold that Thou wilt come to judgement  in a day when we look not for Thee and at an hour when we are not aware: make us prepared every day and every hour to be ready for thine advent, and save us.

Poem: Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness

I Joy, That In These Straits, I See My West

Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness is by the English poet, lawyer, and cleric in the Church of England, John Donne (1572-1631). Scholars believe it was certainly written at a time when he felt that death was imminent, but are divided as to whether it was composed in 1630/31 or during some earlier period of illness. It is included in the Poems for All Seasons Appendix of the Divine Office (1974).


Reading (with scriptural references)

HYMN TO GOD MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS by John Donne (Public Domain)

Since I am coming to that holy room,
     Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made thy music; as I come
     I tune the instrument here at the door,
     And what I must do then, think here before. 

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
     Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
     That this is my south-west discovery,
     Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,

I joy, that in these straits I see my west;
     For, though their currents yield return to none,
What shall my west hurt me? As west and east
     In all flat maps (and I am one) are one,
     So death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are
     The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem?
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar,
     All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,
     Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
     Christ's cross, and Adam's tree, stood in one place;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;
     As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,
     May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.

So, in his purple wrapp'd, receive me, Lord;
     By these his thorns, give me his other crown;
And as to others' souls I preach'd thy word,
     Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:
"Therefore that he may raise, the Lord throws down."