I visited one of my favorite places to find unusual history today, the Virginia Chronicle. A new newspaper was added to the collection since the last time I checked in, and the paper started with a poem:
The Storm.
The tempest rages wild and high,
The waves lift up their voices and cry
Fierce answers to the angry sky:
Miserere Domine!
Through the black night and driving rain
A ship is struggling, all in vain,
To live upon the stormy main;
Miserere Domine!
The thunders roar, the lightnings glare,
Vain it is now to strive or dare;
A cry goes up of great despair;
Miserere Domine!
The stormy voices of the main,
The moaning wind and pelting rain,
Beat on the nursery window pane,
Miserere Domine!
Warm curtain'd was the little bed,
Soft pilow'd was the little head;
"The storm will wake the child," they said;
Miserere Domine!
Cowering among his pillows white,
He prays, his eyes, by fear, dim with fright;
“Father, save those at sea tonight!”
Miserere Domine!
The morning shone all clear and gay
On a ship at anchor in the bay,
And there a little child at play.
Gloria tibi, Domine!
Naturally, the question arose as to who wrote the poem. The newspaper in which it was published, People's Voice, Volume 1, Number 1, 17 April 1880, did not attribute the poem. Was this a local poet, the newspaper owner filling space, or pulled from some other source? A bit of searching revealed The T. & W. club papers: May-Dec., 1877, that quoted the opening stanza. Here, we have a name for our mystery poet: Adelaide Proctor.
The name was not immediately recognizable, but another quick search reveals the correct name of our poet, Adelaide Procter (1825-1864). In her day, she was one of the famous poets of England, said to be the favorite of Queen Victoria. Discovered by Charles Dickens, her poetry appeared in his periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round, and feminist journals. Like many of the era, she died young from tuberculosis, but left behind an impressive volume of work. "The Storm" appeared in her first volume of poems, Legends and Lyrics (1858). As late as 1881, volumes of her poetry were still in high demand, and some of her poems were set to music and used as hymns in the 1870s to 1880s. Her continued popularity through the 1880s explains in some part why she was not given a byline; the publisher likely assumed the readers would know her work without introduction.
While she is not often read today, her complete works may be perused at the Internet Archive in The Poems of Adelaide A. Proctor, including "The Storm."
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