Alone We Could Not Learn to Read

Top Text Author Text Info Tune Timeline Arrangements Instances

Alone we could not learn to read

Author: Carol Christopher Drake
Tune: MORNING SONG (Dare)
Published in 2 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	He Leadeth Me (A budget-stretching resou…

Representative Text

Alone we could not learn to read,
At school they teach us how;
Nor could we learn to trust unless
Our families taught us how.
We love because God loved us first
And loving shows us how.

Source: Sing for Joy: a songbook for young children #132

All representative texts • Compare texts • Text size: Regular | Large ^ top

Author: Carol Christopher Drake

From the newsletter of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley, California: "Many of you asked about the communion hymn we sang last Sunday, Hymn 69. 'What is the crying at Jordan?' was written in the 1950s by Carol Christopher Drake, a former member of St. Mark’s Choir. Carol also wrote the parish centennial hymn 'Gather us in, God make us One.' [Hymn 69] voices a response to John the Baptist’s 'crying in the wilderness,' of his demand that people change their lives in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. She wrote this text specifically for the present tune, St. Mark’s, Berkeley, which in her words 'evoked a sense of mystery and awe.' The tune’s first American use was in the children’s songbook 'Sing for Joy,' co… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Alone we could not learn to read
Title:	Alone We Could Not Learn to Read
Author:	Carol Christopher Drake
Language:	English

^ top

Tune

MORNING SONG (Dare)

MORNING SONG is a folk tune that has some resemblance to the traditional English tune for "Old King Cole." The tune appeared anonymously in Part II of John Wyeth's (PHH 486) Repository of Sacred Music (1813). In 1816 it was credited to "Mr. Dean," which some scholars believe was a misprinted referen…

Go to tune page >

All tunes published with 'Alone We Could Not Learn to Read'^ top