R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

The Women Poets of the 'Seventies 121would be surprised to hear how many of the most familiarhymns were written by women in the nineteenth century—' Just as, I am, without one plea', 'Thy will be done','Watch and pray', by Charlotte Elliott; 'Jesus lives! nolonger now, Can thy terrors, Death, appal us', by FrancesElizabeth Cox; 'Nearer, my God, to Thee', by SarahFlower Adams; ' Our blest Redeemer', by Harriet Huber;and a number by Mrs Alexander, including 'There is agreen hill far away', 'The roseate hues of early dawn',and ' When wounded sore the stricken soul, Lies bleedingand unbound'—though Mrs Alexander, indeed, seems tohave shown some reluctance to be regarded as absorbedentirely in her spiritual pieces, for when a tea-tablevisitor asked her, ' Don't you yearn on starlit nights to beupon the Alps, high above the earth, on the line of theeternal snow?' she rather tartly replied, 'No, I don't'.But religion was not enough to account for that Sundayschoolspirit in women, for it made itself manifest evenwhere religion was not the avowed motive. Possibly, andleaving the freak of genius out of account, since that is anindependent law to itself, the women of mere talent hadnot had time to grow accustomed to their increasingemancipation; they could not as yet take their activitiesnormally and in their stride. Possibly the art of letterswas too new an experience for them to accept naturally;and they regarded it less as an art than as a means ofauthority, as a great responsibility newly given into thehands of women. It was one's duty, perhaps, to improvethe reader's mind; to give him delight was not enough.He must lay down the book, a better man. So MrsHamilton-King wrote:And now, what more shall I say? Do I need hereTo draw the lesson of this life; or sayMore than these few words, following up the text....And whoso suffers most hath most to give.