Kathy Twynam
Morning has broken, like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.
(Interesting note: I looked up the lyrics on the internet in two different places, and in both cases the last word of the first verse was “world”. Our hymnbook uses “Word”, which I believe is the correct version, but requires some knowledge of Christianity to understand.)
At our May Outreach meeting, our friend and Outreach member Debbie Homebrook was responsible for the pre-meeting devotion. She chose to talk about her favourite hymn, “Morning has Broken”, and tell us about its meaning, significance and author, Eleanor Farjeon.
This brought to mind a recollection from more than sixty years ago, when I was a teenager and one of my favourite places to spend a Saturday afternoon was the Rexdale Library. Many of my all-time favourite books were housed in its young people’s section. One of the books I loved was called “Kings and Queens”. It was a collection of wonderfully funny, satiric poems about the kings and queens of England, from William I (The Conqueror) to Elizabeth II. I withdrew it several times, so I could savour it at home. In much later years, I was delighted to find a copy of this book in the British Library in London, and of course I had to buy it. I particularly liked a poem called “Bad King John”, so much so that I memorized it and can recite it in its entirety to this day. I never knew who wrote it, until I bought the book and discovered that the author of “Bad King John” was none other than Eleanor Farjeon, author of Morning Has Broken. She and her brother Herbert wrote the whole “Kings and Queens” book – along with many, many other children’s stories, plays and poems, including some wonderful Christmas and Advent hymns and carols. One of the hymns that we at Graceview often sing during Advent is Eleanor Farjeon’s “People Look East”.
Eleanor Farjeon was born in London, England on February 13, 1881, and died in Hampstead, England on June 5, 1965. She was a small, timid child who due to ill health was educated at home and spent much of her time in the attic, surrounded by books. Her father, author Benjamin Farjeon, encouraged her writing from the age of five, and by age seven little “Nellie” was writing stories on her father’s typewriter. Writing was a family trait – her brothers Joseph and Herbert were also writers, and brother Harry was a musician, music teacher and composer. Eleanor’s mother, Margaret, was the daughter of Joseph Jefferson, the American actor who created the role of Rip Van Winkle and whose close ancestor was President Thomas Jefferson. The family was well off, and all the children were exposed to opera and other theatre at very early ages. Nellie was only four when she attended her first opera. The Farjeons moved in literary and theatrical circles all of her life, and Nellie counted among her friends such people as D.H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Frost.
Eleanor never married, but had a thirty-year friendship with English teacher George Earle. After World War I, she earned her living as a poet, journalist, and broadcaster. In the 1950’s, she was the recipient of three major literary awards: The Carnegie Medal for children’s literature, the Hans Andersen Award for career contribution to children’s literature, and the Regina Medal of the American Catholic Library Association. (At the age of seventy, Eleanor had converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism.)
“Morning Has Broken” is by far Eleanor Farjeon’s most famous poem, written to fulfill a need for a hymn to give thanks for each day and specifically metered to fit the lovely Gaelic tune known as “Bunessan”, which had been composed in the Scottish Highlands.
In 1972, “Morning Has Broken” was made even more well known to the general public when Cat Stevens recorded it. (In fact, Cat Stevens has occasionally been erroneously credited with its authorship.) The piano arrangement on Stevens’ recording was performed by classically trained keyboardist Rick Wakeman, who had agreed to do it for £10 and who later claimed that not only was he not paid, but had been omitted from the credits. (This oversight was later corrected during Stevens’ reincarnation as Yusuf Islam.) The hymn has also been recorded by many other well-known artists, such as Judy Collins, Floyd Cramer, Neil Diamond, Art Garfunkel, Kenny Rogers, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Rick Wakeman felt that Stevens’ version of “Morning Has Broken” had “brought people closer to religious truth”. Farjeon’s poems for children are often mentioned alongside those of A.A Milne and Lewis Carroll as “hardy annuals from the garden of English verse.”
Eleanor Farjeon is buried in the north churchyard extension of St John-at-Hampstead, London.