Hymn #531: God, Speak to Me, That I May Speak

Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879), despite lifelong infirmity, wrote this text as a poem entitled “Worker’s Prayer,” based on Romans 14:7. The poem consisted of seven stanzas and was published in Under the Surface (1874).

Frances R. Havergal, the youngest child of an Anglican clergyman, was a person of frail health all her life. Even so, she began to write verse at age seven, had a religious experience as a young girl, learned several languages, and also composed music. She died at age forty-two.

Robert Alexander Schumann (1810-1856) composed the melody on which this tune is based as a piano piece, Nachtstücke in F, op. 23, no. 4 (1839). It was adapted later for use as a hymn tune known as CANONBURY and published in J. Ireland Tucker’s Hymnal with Tunes, Old and New (1872).

Robert Schumann longed for a career as a concert pianist, but a crippling injury to his hand forced him to turn to composition instead. His wife, Clara, was one of the greatest pianists of her time and did much to make her husband’s music known. Schumann suffered from depression and spent the end of his life in an asylum.