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A Biographical Footnote to Newman‘s “Lead, Kindly Light”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Donald Capps
Donald Capps
Affiliation:
Mr. Capps is assistant professor of religion and psychological studies in The Divinity School, The University of Chicago.
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Extract

Newman's famous poem “Lead, Kindly Light” (originally titled “The Pillar of the Cloud”) was written on his return trip to England from Italy in 1833. He had been touring the Mediterranean countries for eight months, the last three of which were spent battling a near-fatal illness in Sicily. On recovering from this illness, he returned to England rejuvenated by his trip and eager for some pending ecclesiastical project. Immediately on his return to Oxford he became involved in the early organizational discussions from which the Oxford Movement evolved. In light of this intensified engagement in reform activities on his return to England, his poem “Lead, Kindly Light” has impressed his biographers as a revealing statement of his resolve to engage in those activities from which he had shrunk only months before. The lines “I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou shouldst lead me on” and “Pride ruled my will; remember not past years” seem especially to express this shift in resolve. The autobiographical thrust of the poem has therefore seemed quite unmistakable.1

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 480 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1972

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References

1. In its autobiographical thrust, “Lead, Kindly Light” was not only similar to the vast majority of poems written by Newman himself during his tour but also had affinities with the highly personalized poetry of the English Romantics. For an interesting study of the continuities between earlier religious autobiography and nineteenth-century English poetry, see Morris, John N., Versions of the Self (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1966).Google Scholar

2. Newman, John Henry, Autobiographical Writings, ed. Tristram, Henry (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1957), p. 149.Google Scholar

3. Ward, Maisie, Young Mr. Newman (London: Sheed and Ward, 1848), p. 2.Google Scholar

4. O' Faolain, Sean, Newman's Way (New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1952), p. 19.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 309.

6. Maisie Ward, p. 16.

7. Sean O'Faolain, p. 31.

8. Bouyer, Louis, Newman: His Life and Spirituality (London: Burns and Oates, 1958).Google Scholar

9. Autobiographical Writings, p. 205.

10. Newman's associate in the Oxford Movement, Thomas Mozley, said he was “always consulting the auspices, so to speak, to guide his course and to decide some question which he found it impossible to decide simply on its own merits. An unexpected act, or word, or encouragement, or a check, the appearance of a book or an article, pleasant or otherwise, a meeting, a separation, came to him with the significance of an intervention.” Rev. Mozley, Thomas, Reminiscences Chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882), Vol. 1, p. 209.Google Scholar

11. Newman, John Henry, Verses on Various Occasions (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1900), pp. 8–11.Google Scholar The fact that Newman's grandmother considered John and Francis her favorites among the six Newman children is also indicated in a letter he received from his aunt prior to his grandmother's death: “My poor dear Mother is much the same as when you saw her, but still weaker and in much pain; but when she does speak she talks more of you and Francis than of anybody.” Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman, ed. Anne Mozley. (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1890), Vol. 1, p. 80.Google Scholar

12. Autobiographical Writings, pp. 200 and 205.

13. Ibid., p. 180.

14. Ibid., p. 180.

15. Letters and Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 40.Google Scholar

16. In both cases this anticipation was frustrated. See Verses on Various Occasions, p. 192 and Apologia Pro Vite Sua, ed. Charles F. Harrold (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1947), p. 206.Google Scholar

17. Letters and Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 114.

18. Autobiographical Writings, p. 209.

19. Apologia Pro Vita Sua, p. 32. My italics.

20. Discussion of Newman's disengagement from the Church of England and conversion to the Church of Rome is well beyond the scope of the present study. However, it is interesting to note that in his farewell sermon he characterized the Church of England as the natural mother who “barest children, yet dare not own them” and referred to the Church of Rome in a later sermon as the “Great Mother” who stretches out her arms to receive her children. The term “Great Mother” not only suggests the same ascendency over the natural mother implied by the term “Spiritual Mother” but also has linguistic affinities to the term “grandmother”. Sermons Preached on Various Occasions (London, Longmans, Green and Company, 1891), pp. 136–37.Google Scholar