“Morning Has Broken”
Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965)
 
Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
 
Sweet the rain's new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass.
 
Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God's re-creation
Of the new day!
 
 
Eleanor Farjeon was born in London in 1881, and died in London in 1965. She grew up in an artistic household—her grandfather was the famous American actor Joseph Jefferson; her father was a writer; her older brother was a composer; her younger brothers were also writers. As a child, Eleanor and her older brother Harry lived in their imaginations, playing a private game of pretend which continued until they were in their twenties! Eleanor credited this game with deepening her imagination and strengthening her facility as a writer.
 
As an adult, Eleanor counted among her friends people like D. H. Lawrence and Robert Frost. She wrote in many forms: fiction, non-fiction, memoir, essay, poem, libretto. Today, she is best remembered as a writer for children: her work was honored with the Carnegie Medal, the Hans Christian Anderson Award, and the Regina Award from the Catholic Library association in the United States.
 
“Morning Has Broken” was first published in 1931. It is perhaps surprising that this poem which so beautifully celebrates the natural world was produced by someone as city-bred as Farjeon! But on the other hand, perhaps not. She often drew inspiration from her trips and adventures outside of the city, and these experiences were perhaps more striking because they were rare.
 
“Morning has broken / Like the first morning, / Blackbird has spoken / Like the first bird.” This morning, this blackbird singing, are linked with Eden—the “first morning,” the “first bird.” They are things that are ancient – they have existed from the beginning of time. But they are also brand-new -  “Fresh from the Word”—fresh from God’s creating word, when “evening came, and morning followed.”  
 
On this perfect, new day, it is raining! “Sweet the rain’s new fall / Sunlit from heaven, / Like the first dewfall / On the first grass.” Rain and sun are together in the sky, and the wet grass is as pure and sweet as though God’s feet were passing over it; the Genesis account speaks of “the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day” (3:6). In this garden, too, “his feet pass.”
 
So far, this scene has sun and birds, rain and grass, but no people in it. In the third stanza, the scene expands: “Mine is the sunlight, / Mine is the morning,” she exclaims. All of this is for her – for us. Just as the bird, the rain, and the grass are like the very first, so too, in this experience of creation, she is like the first human being, to whom all of this wonder is given.
 
The poem ends as it began, with an invitation to praise, this time making explicit what God does, not just once, but daily: “Praise every morning / God’s re-creation / Of the new day.” God is an active creator: making the world anew, sustaining creation, for us.
 
It would be hard to imagine “Morning has broken” without “Bunessan,” the tune to which it is traditionally sung. Bunessan is a folk melody, first written down in the 19th-century. The tune works beautifully with Farjeon’s text—the rising and falling elements echo the rising of the sun and the falling of the rain the poem describes. The simplicity of the folk melody reinforces the short lines and simple language of Farjeon’s poem.
 
This beautiful text, with the traditional tune, were performed by Cat Stevens in 1972 – and made it to Billboard’s Top 10! Not many of the songs in our hymnals can make that claim.
 
The poem is a good reminder, this springtime, to step outside and experience simple things, like sun, rain, and birdsong, as though for the first time—and to wonder at “God’s recreation / Of the new day.”

Corinna Laughlin