A HYMN OF TRUST

 

 

                                    A HYMN OF TRUST

 

            “A HYMN OF TRUST” was  written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1804- 1894).  He was an American  physician physician, poet and polymath based in Boston. According to available details he was grouped among the fireside poets and was regarded as one of the best writers of the day.

 

            The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) is regarded as one of his best known prose works, and his most famous quotes are:

           

            “We do not quit playing because we grow old,  we grow old because we quit playing”. “ A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience”. “I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving “.  “Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future”.  “Man has his will, but woman has her way”.

                

            The poem “A Hymn of Trust” focuses on divine help  in life’s hardships. It affirms the nearness of God in every unfortunate situation. Look at the third quatrain of the four-quatrain poem, in which the poet says:

             

            When drooping pleasure turns to grief,

            And trembling faith is changed to fear,

            The murmuring wind, the quivering leaf,

            Shall softly tell us, thou art near.

           

            As the title indicates the poem is a hymn of trust in God’s helpfulness during  our difficult situations .   

 

            By definition, a hymn is a spiritual lyric of praise, adoration, or prayer directed toward a deity or saint.

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G.R.Kanwal

15 April 2026