'Such interchange of love': Laudian and High Church poetry and hymnody for the Epiphany

At the Epiphany on previous years, I have sought to illustrate how the preaching and piety of the Laudian and High Church traditions bring us to rejoice in the richness of this festival. This year, we turn to the poetry and hymnody of the Laudian and High Church traditions, poetry and hymnody which draws us to celebrate the rich imagery of the Epiphany, grounded in patristic teaching on the leading of the Star and the adoration of the Magi.

In The Golden Grove (1655), Jeremy Taylor provides a hymn for use 'Upon the Epiphany, and the three wise men of the East coming to worship Jesus'. The hymn begins by drawing our attention to the 'Star of wonder', described by Taylor as "A Comet dangling in the aire", heralding a momentous event of cosmic significance:

A Comet dangling in the aire

Presag'd the ruine both of Death and Sin;

And told the wise-men of a King,

The King of Glory, and the Sun

Of Righteousness, who then begun

To draw towards that blessed Hemisphere.

Thomas Ken's Epiphany hymn, in The Christian Year (1700), brings us to reflect upon the evangelist's account - in the Gospel reading for the feast - that Magi saw the Christ Child "with Mary his mother". It is this Marian dimension of the feast which Ken quite beautifully sets before us:

This day the star stood still,

Its rays which brighten'd Bethlehem vill,

Towards the poor stable veer'd,

Where God in swaddling-clothes appear'd:

The sages entering fell upon the floor,

The weak Almighty Infant to adore.

Next to the Infant, they

Due honour to the Mother pay,

Then cloths of state unfold,

Which wrapt myrrh, frankincense, and gold,

Those they presented to the Infant's view,

The noblest gifts which in their countries grew ...

You Mother saw and Child,

She sweetly yearn'd , He brightly smiled;

None of the bless'd above,

E'er had such interchange of love.

'Twas heavenly glory which the Infant crown'd,

Dilating His pure Mother to surround.

Richard Mant's translation of O sola magnarum urbium, in his 1837 Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary, contains the traditional symbolism of the gifts presented by the Magi:

Him what time the Magians saw,

Forth their orient gifts they draw;

Prostrate they with vows unfold

Myrrh, and frankincense, and gold.

Frankincense and gold they bring,

To announce their God and King:

Spice of aromatic myrrh,

To announce His sepulchre.

In The Christian Year (1827), John Keble's Epiphany poem points to the Prayer Book's alternative title for the feast - 'or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles' - much disliked by 20th century liturgical revision but surely a very apt summary of the evangelist's intention in including the story of the visitation of the Magi:

Did not the Gentile Church find grace,

Our mother dear, this favoured day?

With gold and myrrh she sought Thy face;

Nor didst Thou turn Thy face away.

Finally, Christopher Wordsworth in his hymn for the Epiphany, in The Holy Year (1865), rejoices in the coherence of nature and revelation, for just as grace fulfills rather than destroys nature, so the star leads the Magi to the Christ Child:

The Heavens declare Thy Glory, Lord,

Thy Love is written in Thy Word;

And we behold Thy blessed Face

In works of Power, and words of Grace;

We see Thee, Lord, whene'er we look

In Nature, and in Scripture's Book.

The poetry of the Laudian and High Church traditions offers a profoundly joyful meditation upon the Lord's Epiphany, drinking deeply from the wells of patristic and early medieval reflection upon the feast. Here, in other words, is a deeply traditional piety, with long pre-Reformation roots, demonstrating how Anglican spirituality during these centuries could maintain and give noble and affective expression to a richly joyful, prayerful approach to the Epiphany. 

It is also a reminder that while hymnody - outside of the canticles provided in the Prayer Book and metrical psalmody in parishes - was not part of Anglican worship during the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a lively devotional tradition of hymns for private use, a tradition which would, in the later 19th century, provide the basis for a vibrant hymnody in Anglican public worship. Those hymns authored by Anglicans which have now come to be greatly loved in the celebration of the Epiphany - John H. Hopkins' 'We Three Kings' and William Chatterton Dix's 'As With Gladness' - stand in this established tradition of Anglican hymnody for the feast.

In these days after the Epiphany, as we continue to meditate upon the Magi adoring the Christ Child on the lap of His Mother, may this Laudian and High Church poetry draw us deeper into the mystery beheld by the Magi.

(The stained glass image of the Adoration of the Magi is 12th century, from Canterbury Cathedral.)