Anna Letitia Waring
Anna Letitia Waring was a Welsh poet and hymn writer born in Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire. The daughter of journalist Elijah Waring, she grew up in a literary environment influenced by her family, including her uncle, hymnist Samuel Miller, and her aunt, poet Sarah Waring. Initially raised as a Quaker, Waring converted to Anglicanism at the age of seventeen, inspired by her uncle's writings on faith and sacraments. Her first collection of poems, "Hymns and Meditations," published in 1850, focused on biblical themes and included her well-known hymn "Father, I know that all my life." This work gained popularity, leading to several later editions and contributions to various hymnals. Waring was also engaged in social reform, addressing issues like temperance and the penal system through her writings. In her later years, she devoted herself to charitable work, particularly at Horfield Prison in Bristol, and continued to write poetry for her friends. Waring's literary contributions and dedication to social issues highlight her influence in both religious and reform circles in the 19th century.
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Anna Letitia Waring
Poet
- Born: April 19, 1823
- Birthplace: Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales
- Died: May 10, 1910
Biography
Anna Waring, the daughter of Elijah Waring, a journalist and biographer, and Deborah Waring, was born in Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales. Her uncle was the hymnist Samuel Miller, who influenced her life and her writing. As a child, she staged comic entertainments with her other six siblings and she also wrote humorous poetry and prose. Her aunt, Sarah Waring, whose home she often visited, was another literary influence; she had written two books of poetry about nature.
When Anna Waring was seventeen, she left the Society of Friends (Quakers), her family’s longtime church, and decided to become an Anglican. Her uncle Samuel had left an influential statement about his own desire to have the sacraments and his subsequent decision to join the Church of England. This prompted her conversion. After her family endorsed her decision, she was baptized by the reverend Anthony Crowdy on May 15, 1842, at St. Martin’s, Winnall, Winchester. After her conversion she learned Hebrew and began an intensive study of the Bible, which was supplemented by daily readings from the Hebrew Psalter.
Her first book of poems,Hymns and Meditations, was published in 1850 by Quaker bookseller Charles Gilpin of London. It consisted of nineteen poems, all derived from the Bible, particularly the Psalms. “Father, I know that all my life” later became the most famous of her hymns. The inexpensive volume, which concerned sin and salvation, became popular and was followed by larger editions later printed by other publishers in 1852 and 1854, as well as by several other later editions.
In 1854, Waring published a prose religious tract about Christian patience and fortitude. Two years later, she followed this with another tract about the virtues of early rising. Both tracts were written for working-class audiences.
Alfred William Bennett, who took over Gilpin’s business, printed her Additional Hymns, a collection of fourteen new religious works, in 1858. The 1860 edition of Hymns and Meditations contained the original poems and the ones that appeared in 1858. Inexpensive and small, making them convenient to carry, the later editions were immensely popular. The poems themselves were also anthologized in popular hymnals such as the American Unitarian Hymn Book for Church and Home (1968) and James Martineau’s Hymns of Praise and Prayer (1873).
During the 1860’s, Waring’s interest in reform issues involving temperance and the penal system led to the publication of her Lizzie Weston’s Mission and The Wasted Grain, and Other Poems. In the 1870’s, Alexander Strahan added Hymns and Meditations to his publication list, which also included works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Anthony Trollope. The Strahan company and its successor continued to print new editions of Hymns and Meditations until 1883, when the book was picked up by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which published it well into the twentieth century. In the last twenty years of Waring’s life, she wrote poetry for her friends and was a frequent visitor at Horfield Prison in Bristol, where she spent her last years performing charitable works.