Henry Francis Lyte
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Henry Francis Lyte (June 1, 1793 - November 20, 1847) was an Anglican divine and hymn-writer. He was born to Thomas and Anna Lyte on a farm at Ednam, near Kelso, Scotland.[1] Thomas Lyte deserted the family shortly after making arrangements for his two oldest sons to attend Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Anna moved to London, where both she and her youngest son soon died.
The headmaster at Portora, Dr. Burrowes, recognized Henry Lyte's ability, paid the boy’s fees, and "welcomed him into his own family during the holidays. Lyte was effectively an adopted son, and he never forgot Burrowes' generosity and compassion.[2]
Lyte then studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He took Anglican holy orders in 1815, and for some time held a curacy in Taghmon near Wexford. In 1817 he was a curate in Cornwall married to Anne Maxwell, who came from Monaghan in Ireland. Because of bad health Lyte moved to England, and after several changes settled, in 1823, in the parish of Lower Brixham, a fishing village in Devon where he helped educate Lord Salisbury, later British prime minister.
In poor health throughout his life, he developed consumption. He visited continental Europe often and continued to write, mainly religious poetry and hymns. While in Brixham, Lyte wrote his most famous hymns. Three of the best known are paraphrases of psalms, taken from Lyte’s book, The Spirit of the Psalms (1834). “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven” is Lyte’s version of Psalm 103; “God of Mercy, God of Grace” is based on Psalm 67; and “Pleasant are thy courts above” is a paraphrase of Psalm 84.[3] In 1844 Lyte's health finally gave way. After his last service, he penned his most famous hymn Abide With Me after watching the sun set over Torbay. Lyte died just two weeks later in 1847 in Nice, southern France, and was buried there. [4]
Lyte's first work was Tales in Verse illustrative of Several of the Petitions in the Lord's Prayer (1826), which was written at Lymington and was commended by Wilson in the Noctes Ambrosianae. He next published (1833) a volume Poems, chiefly Religious, and in 1834 a little collection of psalms and hymns entitled The Spirit of the Psalms. After his death, a volume of Remains with a memoir was published, and the poems contained in this, with those in Poems, chiefly Religious, were afterwards issued in one volume (1868). His best known hymns are:
- Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;
- Jesus, I my cross have taken;
- Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven; and
- Pleasant are Thy courts above.
[edit] References
- ^ Faith Cook, Our Hymn-writers and Their Hymns (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2005). The family originated from Somerset in South West England.
- ^ David Robertson, "Henry Francis Lyte"
- ^ David Robertson, "Henry Francis Lyte"
- ^ Lyte also composed a tune for "Abide with Me," but since 1861 the hymn has usually been sung to “Eventide”, composed by William H. Monk, Director of Music at King's College London.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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