I Have No Mother Now is a Sacred Harp song (page 363, 2012 Cooper Edition) written by an East Texas leader, singer, singing school teacher, and composer, John Wesley Miller. I had originally assumed that he wrote the words as well as the music. When I published Songs Before Unknown in 2015, I credited the words to Miller. I’m not sure whether I failed to vet that carefully, or just could not at that time find the words used elsewhere. I recently discovered that Horace Neely Lincoln used basically the same words with a song he wrote and published in 1894 in Song-Land Messenger Complete: a New Song Book for Revivals, Praise and Prayer Meetings, Singing and Sunday Schools, and Churches, and for the Home Circle.
His note “* Theme of words not original” indicated this probably was a poem that had been in the air awhile. As I continued to look, I discovered the source. The poem, originally similar but quite a bit different from that used by Lincoln and Miller, was written by Corolla H. Criswell and printed in Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine (Philadelphia, Pa), January 1856, page 61.
Corolla Hiacynthia Bennett, daughter of James Arlington Bennett and Sophia Smith, was born in 1826 in New York. She married Robert Criswell. Corolla died March 14, 1890, and is buried at the Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Her father was founder of the Washington Cemetery Association.
Her death notice in the Keystone Gazette described her as “a woman of considerable literary ability.” (Keystone Gazette, Thursday, March 20, 1890, p. 3) She also wrote under the nom de plume Di Vernon. Her original words are:
I hear the soft wind sighing
Through every bush and tree;
Where now dear mother’s lying
Away from love and me.
Tears from mine eyes are starting,
And sorrow shades my brow;
Oh, weary was our parting—
I have no mother now!
I see the pale moon shining
On mother’s white head-stone!
The rose-bush round it twining,
Is here like me—alone.
And just like me are weeping
Those dew-drops from the bough;
Long time has she been sleeping—
I have no mother now!
My heart is ever lonely,
My life is drear and sad;
’Twas her dear presence only
That made my spirit glad.
From morning until even,
Care rests upon my brow;
She’s gone from me to heaven—
I have no mother now!
As found in The Sacred Harp, the words are as follows:
I hear the soft winds sighing
Among the boughs that wave,
Beneath is mother lying
So quiet in her grave.
Unbidden tears have started,
As by the mound I bow,
I think of when we parted—
I have no mother now.
Chorus:
She’s gone from earth to heaven,
She’s gone away, I have no mother now.
The pale moon shines so faintly,
Yet I in fancy see
Her face, so pure and saintly,
As when she smiled on me.
Although she’s safe in glory,
Yet care beclouds my brow,
There’s sorrow in my story—
I have no mother now.
(Chorus)
I feel so very lonely,
The future seems so drear,
My dear Redeemer only
Can make the pathway clear.
Of wounds, past mortal healing,
There’s few like this I trow;
This sad, heartbroken feeling—
I have no mother now.
(Chorus)
The chorus was probably added or arranged by John W. Miller. The words are not in the original poem (though very similar to the next to last line), neither do they appear in the song by Lincoln. Two lines added along the way before the poem got to Lincoln and Miller – My dear Redeemer only can make the pathway clear – makes the otherwise sad sentimental song more hopeful. It is only through God, grace, and his revelation of it that we can have a clear path out of the despondency that the death of a loved one might otherwise bring. While I do not recommend this as a church song, it can have a place in our singing lives. It expresses a true feeling of many.
My own Mother was born on this day in 1915. Were she living, she would be 111 years old, but “I have (on earth) no mother now.”
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