O! day of days! shall hearts set free? J. Keble. [Easter.] Written April 18, 1822, and first published in his Christian Year, 1827, as the poem for Easter Day. It is in 15 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed with the text from St. Luke xxiv. 5, 6. It has been repeated in all later editions of the Christian Year. As a whole it is not in common use, but stanzas ix., xi. and xii., slightly altered, are given as, "As even the lifeless stone was dear," in the Hymn Book for the Use of Wellington College, 1860, where it is appointed for the evening of the 4th Sunday after Easter.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Keble, John, M.A., was born at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, on St. Mark's Day, 1792. His father was Vicar of Coln St. Aldwin's, about three miles distant, but lived at Fairford in a house of his own, where he educated entirely his two sons, John and Thomas, up to the time of their entrance at Oxford. In 1806 John Keble won a Scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and in 1810 a Double First Class, a distinction which up to that time had been gained by no one except Sir Robert Peel. In 1811 he was elected a Fellow of Oriel, a very great honour, especially for a boy under 19 years of age; and in 1811 he won the University Prizes both for the English and Latin Essays. It is somewhat remarkable that amid this brilliantly successful career,… Go to person page >
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