Pulpit: My song

An article on the life of Samuel Crossman who wrote the poem 'My song is love unknown'.

Samuel Crossman (1623 -1683) was a priest of the Church of England and a hymn writer. He was born at Bradfield Monachorum, now known as Bradfield St George, Suffolk, England.

Crossman achieved the degree of Bachelor of Divinity at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge and after serving a term as Vicar of All Saints Church in Sudbury, was appointed as a Prebendary of Bristol Cathedral. After graduation, he ministered to both an Anglican congregation at All Saints, Sudbury, and to a Puritan congregation simultaneously. Crossman sympathised with the Puritan cause, and attended the 1661 Savoy Conference, which attempted to update the Book of Common Prayer so that both Puritans and Anglicans could use it. The conference failed, and the 1662 Act of Uniformity expelled Crossman along with some 2,000 other Puritan-leaning ministers from the Church of England. He renounced his Puritan affiliations shortly afterwards, and was ordained in 1665, becoming a royal chaplain. He received a post at Bristol in 1667, and became Dean of Bristol Cathedral in 1683. He died on 4 February 1683 at Bristol, and lies buried in the south aisle of the cathedral at Bristol.

The words of the hymn “My song is love unknown” are overwhelmingly beautiful and fit the Christian view of Jesus to a tee. They attracted the attention of hymnbook compilers including Percy Dearmer,(1867-1936) (pictured right) who championed Samuel Crossman’s poems and included them in hymn book collections. He was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson’s Handbook and The English Hymnal. He was also the third vicar of the parish of St Mary’s, Primrose Hill in north London.

The sign outside the church in Sudbury, Suffolk

A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice. Dearmer also had a huge influence on the music of the church and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. He ended life in the beautiful haunts of Westminster Abbey as a resident accepted for his major contribution to church life and church music in particular.

Here are the words of Crossman’s major poem:-

My song is love unknown, my Saviour’s love to me; love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from his blest throne salvation to bestow; but men made strange, and none the longed-for Christ would know. But O, my Friend, my Friend indeed, who at my need his life did spend!

Sometimes they strew His way, and His sweet praises sing; resounding all the day hosannas to their King. Then 'Crucify!' is all their breath, and for His death they thirst and cry.

Here might I stay and sing: no story so divine; never was love, dear King, never was grief like Thine! This is my Friend, In whose sweet praise I all my days Could gladly spend. Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, He gave the blind their sight. Sweet injuries! yet they at these Themselves displease And, gainst him rise.

They rise, and needs will have my dear Lord made away; a murderer they save, the Prince of Life they slay. Yet cheerful He to suffering goes, that He His foes from thence might free.

In life no house, no home my Lord on earth might have; in death no friendly tomb but what a stranger gave. What may I say? Heav’n was his home; but mine the tomb wherein he lay.

As a choir boy, and later a member of several adult choirs and choral societies, I have sung this hymn many times and it has always moved my emotions and I am sorry that there isn’t very much about Samuel Crossman in the collective memory of the Church of England.

A close-up photograph of the place where Dean Crossman is buried. This is a photograph of the south aisle in Bristol Cathedral and it is here that Dean Crossman was interred.

Unfortunately, his stone was damaged at some point and was replaced with a blank stone. Odd that!

He is still listed among all the former Deans so his name is on public display for visitors to see. However, his appointment in 1682 was followed quickly by his death in 1683.

One of the outstanding things about “My song is love unknown” is the music to which the words are sung. There is a lovely story about the tune which is used most today. An organist and fellow composer called Geoffrey Shaw invited the composer John Ireland to lunch in the hope of discussing several publication matters. At some point in the discussions, Geoffrey Shaw pulled out of his bag the words of “My song is love unknown” and asked John Ireland if would write tune for the hymn. Amazingly, John Ireland got his pencil out and started to write tune immediately on the back on either a cigarette package or, some said that he wrote it on the back on the restaurant menu! Whatever the truth, the tune, which is known as “Love Unknown” was a spectacular success and is still being sung with great pleasure today.

John Ireland had a special gift!

John Ireland (1879-1962) His grave in Sussex

Editor’s note: This was the last article Neil wrote before he died. We will miss reading his many stories. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.