SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH - AUTOGRAPH POEM SIGNED 11/21/1892 - HFSID 41579

SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH
Rare copy of Smith's 1832 hymn The Morning Light is Breaking, handwritten, signed and dated by Smith in 1892. This hymn is titled Missionary Hymn but lyrics identical to The Morning Light is Breaking. Smith is better known for America, and handwritten copies of this other hymn of his are extremely rare.
Autograph poem signed: "S.F. Smith/Written in 1832./Nov. 21, 1892.", 2 pages, conjoined sheets, 9¾x8, on ruled paper. This is a handwritten copy of a four-stanza hymn by Smith. It's titled Missionary Hymn, but it has the same lyrics as his hymn The Morning Light is Breaking. Smithis better known for America, firstwritten the same year as this hymn. Handwritten copies of The Morning Light is Breaking are much rarer than copies of America. After a visit to Germany in 1831, 23-year-old theological student Samuel Francis Smith (1808-1895), impressed that German children started their school day by singing a hymn, wrote a patriotic hymn using a simple German melody. Coincidentally, the melody was the same as that of the British national anthem, "God Save the King". Smith jotted down the complete hymn on a piece of scrap paper within half an hour, and the result, "America", was first sung at a children's celebration in Boston's Park Street Church on July 4, 1832. George Gershwin used Smith's phrase "Of Thee I Sing" as the title of his 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted the entire first stanza as he concluded his "I have a dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Lightly toned and creased. Folded once vertically and twice horizontally and unfolded. Rust stain at top. Otherwise, fine condition.