Go, Happy Soul

Representative Text

1 Go, happy soul: thy days are ended,
thy pilgrimage on earth below;
go, by angelic guard attended;
to God's own Paradise now go.

2 Go, Christ the Shepherd good befriend thee,
who gave his life thy soul to win;
'tis even he that shall defend thee,
thy going out and coming in.

3 Go forth in peace; farewell to sadness;
may rest in Paradise be thine;
in Jesus' presence there is gladness,
light everlasting on thee shine.

Source: Rejoice in the Lord #590

Author: George Ratcliffe Woodward

Educated at Caius College in Cambridge, England, George R. Woodward (b. Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, 1848; d. Highgate, London, England, 1934) was ordained in the Church of England in 1874. He served in six parishes in London, Norfolk, and Suffolk. He was a gifted linguist and translator of a large number of hymns from Greek, Latin, and German. But Woodward's theory of translation was a rigid one–he held that the translation ought to reproduce the meter and rhyme scheme of the original as well as its contents. This practice did not always produce singable hymns; his translations are therefore used more often today as valuable resources than as congregational hymns. With Charles Wood he published three series of The Cowley Carol Book (19… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Go, happy soul: thy days are ended
Title: Go, Happy Soul
Author: George Ratcliffe Woodward (1910, alt.)
Meter: 9.8.9.8
Language: English

Tune

CONSOLATOR (Webbe)

CONSOLATION was originally set for solo voice to "Alma redemptoris mater" by Samuel Webbe, Sr. (PHH 112), in his Collection of Motetts and Antiphons (1792). Thomas Hastings adapted the tune for use with Moore's text in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (1831). CONSOLATION is also known as ALMA and…

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LES COMANDEMENS DE DIEU

LES COMMANDEMENS (French for "the commandments"), a rich and graceful tune in the Hypo-Ionian mode (major), was used in the Genevan Psalter (1547) for the Decalogue and for Psalm 140, and later in British psalters and in the Lutheran tradition. The first setting in the Psalter Hymnal derives from Cl…

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Timeline

Instances

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Text

Rejoice in the Lord #590

Include 2 pre-1979 instances
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