Soliloquy on the Eve of New Year's Day

My days and weeks, and months and years

Author: Thomas Greene (1780)
Published in 128 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI, Recording

Representative Text

1 My days, my weeks, my months, my years,
Fly rapid as the whirling spheres
Around the steady pole:
Time, like the tide, its motion keeps,
Till I must launch through boundless deeps,
Where endless ages roll.

2 The grave is near the cradle seen:
The moments swiftly pass between,
And whisper as they fly:
Unthinking man, remember this,
Though fond of sublunary bliss,
Thou soon must gasp and die.

3 My soul, attend the solemn call:
Thine earthly tent must quickly fall,
And thou must take thy flight
Beyond the vast expansive blue,
To sing and love as angels do,
Or sink in endless night.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #904

Author: Thomas Greene

Greene, Thomas, of Ware, was for some time a member of the Congregational body in that town. In 1778 a minority of the members, of Arian principles, having obtained the lease of the chapel, the majority seceded and built themselves the "Old Independent Chapel." Mr. Greene was one of these seceders (Miller's Singers & Songs, 1869, p. 314). His Hymns and Poems on Various Subjects, chiefly Sacred, were published in 1780 (2nd ed., 1797). From this work the hymn "It is the Lord, enthroned in light" (Resignation), is taken. In Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, it begins, "It is the Lord, my covenant God." In modern collections it is found in both forms. Another hymn from the same work is "The more my conduct I survey " (Trusting in Jesus),… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: My days and weeks, and months and years
Title: Soliloquy on the Eve of New Year's Day
Author: Thomas Greene (1780)
Meter: 8.8.6.8.8.6
Source: Poems on Various Subjects, Chiefly Sacred, by the Late Mr. Thomas Greene, of Ware, Hertfordshire. London: H. Goldney. 1780. 381 pp.
Language: English
Notes: Research by Marion J. Hatchett, 2003. (A Companion to the New Harp of Columbia, p. 148.) claims "Julian (1907) spells his last name "Greene", but the book of his poems spells it correctly: "Green" ". However the Library of Congress Name Authority and WorldCat records spell the name "Greene."
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 1 of 1)

The Sacred Harp #266

Include 127 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.