Henry Alford

7 October 1810—12 January 1871

HENRY ALFORD was born in London, October 7, 1810. His education was received at Ilminster Grammar School, Somerset, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Here he took high honors, and in 1834 became a Fellow. His career has been that of a scholar and ecclesiastical writer. His Greek Testament with notes, and his beautiful “Revision” of the English version, are permanent testimony to his taste and research. He was the editor of the Contemporary Review, and prepared, in 1867, a hymnal in which fifty-five out of the whole number of hymns are his own.

From 1853 to 1857, he preached in the Quebec Street Chapel, London, printing these eloquent sermons in 1854 and 1855. In 1857, he succeeded Dean Lyall of Canterbury. His poems appeared in a fourth edition in 1865. He died at Canterbury on the 12th of January, 1871.

by Samuel Duffield
English Hymns: Their Authors and History, 3rd Ed. (1888)

Featured Hymns:

Come, ye thankful people, come

Collections of Poems and Hymns:

Poems and Poetical Fragments (1831): Archive.org

The School of the Heart (1835)

Vol. 1: Archive.org
Vol. 2: Archive.org

Hymns for the Sundays and Festivals (1836)

Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841): PDF

Psalms and Hymns (1844): PDF

Prose Hymns (1844): PDF

The Year of Praise (1867): Archive.org

The Lord’s Prayer (1870): WorldCat

see also:

Christian Observer (1830)

Christian Guardian (1830)

British Magazine (1832)

Macmillan’s Magazine (1863)

Good Words (1864)

Editions:

Poetical Works

1st ed. (1845) vol. 1 | vol. 2 (PDF)
Select Poetical Works (1851): PDF
American ed. (1853): Archive.org
3rd ed. (1859): Archive.org
4th ed. (1865): Archive.org
5th ed. (1868): HathiTrust

Manuscripts:

For a list of manuscript holdings, see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Related Resources:

Henry Alford, “Church Hymn Books,” Contemporary Review, vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1866), pp. 434–449: HathiTrust

Josiah Miller, “Henry Alford,” Singers and Songs of the Church (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1869), pp. 508–510: Archive.org

Fanny Alford, The Life, Journals, and Letters of Henry Alford, 3rd ed. (London: Rivingtons, 1874): Archive.org

Samuel Duffield, “Henry Alford,” English Hymns: Their Authors and History, 3rd Ed. (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1888). pp. 120–121: Archive.org

J.D., “Henry Alford,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 39–40: Google Books

W.H. Freemantle, rev. Roger T. Stearn, “Henry Alford,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/341

J.R. Watson, “Henry Alford,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/h/henry-alford

Henry Alford, Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/person/Alford_Henry

An English hymn should be plain in diction, chastened in imagery, fervent in sentiment, humble in its approach to God. Its lines should be cunningly wrought, so that they may easily find their way to the ear of the simplest, and stay unbidden in his memory. It should be metrically faultless; so departing at times from perfect uniformity, as to render reason for the departure, and give charm to its usual strictness. They have done our hymns an ill service, who have gone about to alter trochaic feet into iambic, because the metre was iambic.

The making of hymns requires more of the fancy than of the imagination: but the fancy must keep her bounds, and speak not above a whisper. A hymn, as it must not be “fanciful,” so neither must it be sublime: as it must not be without thought, so neither must it require and challenge thought. The soul of the worshipper is greater than the hymn which he sings: the hymn must not set itself up above him.

Hymns are founded on the divine Word and the divine Life. Both should be approached reverently. God’s word in the Scripture, God’s work in the soul, are not to be caricatured by big and airy sounds. We may take the text which has struck us, and mould it into a hymn, but we must use it fairly: not distort it, not set it to work in regions where it finds no reference. We may choose the aspect of faith or hope or love which seems best to us, but we must sit at the feet of the Great Inward Teacher, and be not false to our own experience; we must not exaggerate; we must curb the license of metre and antithesis. He who is to lead the praises of the Church, must speak the mind of the Church.

There are few hymns indeed which come up to the highest standard. A very good test of approach to it, is being everywhere known. For it is the very object of a hymn to get carried into the mind of the Church, and to serve as the acknowledged vehicle of heavenward thoughts and strains. And this will ordinarily be done, not by hymns imported through translation from other churches, but by those which are of native growth: not by the elaborate and artificial, but by the simple and natural: not by those which are made out with stop-gaps, and patches of commonplace, but by those where every word is in its place, and cannot be disarranged without loss to the whole.

by Henry Alford
“Church Hymn Books”
Contemporary Review, vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1866), pp. 448–449.