Frances Ridley Havergal

Under His Shadow Frances Ridley Havergal

Frances Ridley Havergal published three books of poetry, The Ministry of Song (1869), Under His Shadow (1874), and Loyal Responses (1878). She had not finished her next book of poems when she died on June 3, 1879; in her final illness, she and her sister Maria discussed this book, and Maria posthumously edited and published this collection later that same year with the title Under His Shadow The Last Poems of Frances Ridley Havergal. Most or nearly all of F. R. H.'s poems were published in The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1884). In the Nisbet edition, the section entitled Under His Shadow is very different from the original book both in the order (sequence) of poems and in the inclusion or exclusion of several poems: various poems were placed in different sequences (very possibly because more was known when the later Nisbet edition was prepared), other poems were added, and other poems were removed from the original Under His Shadow (because those poems were placed elsewhere in the much larger, more comprehensive Nisbet edition). This is not said to disparage the Nisbet Poetical Works edition at all: that is a sterling compilation, very finely prepared. Very possibly or likely Maria realized more (about titles, sequences, texts, etc.) after the original Under His Shadow was published and before the finalized Nisbet edition was published. This is said to explain that this small volume of Under His Shadow follows the original 1879 sequence (placement of the poems) of that book, though the titles and texts of the individual poems in the 1884 Nisbet edition (later prepared, and likely more accurate than the earlier, original book) are copied here. This book is another collection full of true treasure.