Monday Music: This is my Song (Finlandia)

The tune "Finlandia" was composed by Jean Sebelius and has been used for other hymns ("Be Still My Soul" is one example). "This Is My Song," by Lloyd Stone, was written when the poet was 22 years old. It was after WWI and the song is a beautiful example of having love for one's country while recognizing the need for peace among the nations. The song is performed here by Indigo Girls.

                    This is my song, O God of all the nations,
                    a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
                    this is my home, the country where my heart is;
                    here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
                    but other hearts in other lands are beating
                    with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

                    My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
                    and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
                    but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
                    and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
                    O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
                    a song of peace for their land and for mine.

                                                                       ~ Lloyd Stone



-

Songs for Christmas: Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

We saw in the previous post how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century used poetry in an attempt to reconcile the realities of war and personal loss with the Christmas message of hope for peace on earth. Similarly, John Lennon in the 1970s used music (and a few billboards) to call our attention to the need to act upon "the better angels of our nature"  (to use Lincoln's phrase). As the song continues to be heard over the airwaves each Christmas, it calls  us to actually seek the peace that we sing about during this season.

*