As
I was preparing my previous column, I was struck with how well the
fifty-one poems by Eliza R. Snow published in the Times
and Seasons
reflected so much of what was happening in the Church from 1839 to
1846. As a result, I wanted to provide a bit more detail on what this
remarkable woman contributed to the life of Nauvoo through her
poetry.
Young Eliza R. Snow
Much
has been written about Eliza’s extraordinary life and
accomplishments, and some is even available online. (See note 1
below.) I will not review her life here but, rather, give only a
brief reminder of how important she was in LDS history.
After
Eliza was baptized in 1835, she was with the main body of the Church
in Kirtland, Missouri, Nauvoo, and Utah. During all that time, she
wrote and published a remarkable amount of poetry — more than
500 poems in all — that caught the spirit of nearly everything
the Saints experienced. In Missouri, Joseph Smith encouraged her to
speak for the Latter-day Saints through her poetry. This, in fact,
became a calling, as the Prophet designated her “Zion’s
Poetess.”
Always
involved in women’s activities, Eliza was elected secretary of
the Relief Society in Nauvoo.
On
June 29, 1842, she secretly became one of Joseph Smith’s plural
wives, married for “time and all eternity.” Her poetry of
that period sometimes reflects her deep affection for him. After
Joseph’s death she became a plural wife to Brigham Young,
marrying him on October 3, 1844. She was as fiercely loyal to him as
she was to her first husband, and eventually she became one of plural
marriage’s most avid defenders.
In
Utah, Eliza was assigned (in 1855) to direct the women’s
activities as they participated in the Church’s most sacred
ordinances in the Endowment House. In 1867, she was assigned to
reestablish the Relief Society and organize Relief Societies through
the Church. In 1880, she became the Relief Society’s general
president. She also helped establish the Young Women program of the
Church as well as the Primary for children. In addition, she spent
considerable time visiting Mormon settlements in the Intermountain
West, encouraging and organizing women and teaching them the secrets
of independence and self-sufficiency.
In
the midst of her busy life, Eliza published nine books. They included
two books of poetry, a biography of her brother Lorenzo (an apostle
and later President of the Church), a collection of letters written
in 1872-1873 while touring Europe and the Holy Land with her brother,
and five books for children. She was also on the advisory board for
the first women’s magazine in the Church, the
Woman’s Exponent.
She has sometimes been called the “first lady of Mormon
letters.”
The
poems Eliza published in the Times
and Seasons
are important in that they reflect what some writers have called
“lived Mormonism” in Nauvoo. They reflect the feelings
not just of Eliza but also of her admiring readers about the gospel,
certain people in Nauvoo, and the trials and tragedies of the Saints.
A
few of her poems may seem a bit effusive, even maudlin, to some, but
as a corpus they admirably reflect the thoughts and feelings of a
remarkable woman who represented a generation. Hopefully, brief
comments on some of her poems, along with a few selected lines, will
help the reader feel that generation’s emotions and concerns
during both the trials and pleasures of Nauvoo.
A
few of the poems mentioned below were published elsewhere earlier,
but the dates given are those on which the poems were published in
the Times
and Seasons.
Eliza’s
first Times
and Seasons
poem, published in December 1849, was “Slaughter on Shoal
Creek, Caldwell County Missouri.” It was a bitter denunciation
of those who perpetuated the massacre at Haun’s Mill, in
Missouri. Eliza described them as,
Ill-fated
men — whose minds would hardly grace
The
most ferocious of the brutal race —
Men
without hearts — else, would their bosoms bleed
At
the commission of so foul a deed
Surely
these words resonated powerfully not only with those who were present
at the massacre, but also with all those who so recently had been
brutally driven from Missouri.
A
few years later, Eliza published a similar, perhaps even more bitter,
denunciation of Missouri. In November 1843, the Saints sent a second
petition to Congress, this one containing 3,419 signatures, asking
for redress for their Missouri losses. This may have been what
triggered Eliza to write “Missouri” (February 1, 1844).
In a sense it is more prose than poetry, and its acrimonious lines
clearly echo the bitterness against that state that still lingered in
the hearts of many a persecuted Mormon. To quote a few lines:
When
thou hadst torn from helpless innocence its rightful protectors, thou
didst pollute the holy sanctuary of female virtue, and barbarously
trample upon the most sacred gems of domestic felicity!
Therefore,
the daughters of Columbia [i.e., the U.S.] count thee a reproach, and
blush with indignation at the mention of thy name.
Thou
hast become an ignominious stain on the escutcheon of a noble, free
and independent Republic — thou art a stink in the nostrils of
the Goddess of Liberty.
That
word “stink” may seem harsh, but it is interesting to
note that the same word was used by Joseph Smith in the meeting that
approved the petition. The doctrine of “states’ rights”
prevented the federal government from intervening within a state, and
therefore it could not intervene in Missouri to help the Mormons.
Said Joseph in that meeting: “The State rights doctrines are
what feed mobs. They are a dead carcass — a stink, and they
shall ascend up as a stink offering in the nose of the Almighty.”
However,
Eliza’s next poem in the Times
and Seasons
was couched in quite a different tone and reflected something
entirely different: an appreciation for the principle of continuing
revelation as well as Eliza’s hearty support for the 1833
revelation known as the Word of Wisdom. Titled “The Word of
Wisdom,” the poem showed concern that some Nauvoo Saints did
not live it, foreshadowing, in a sense, Eliza’s later
well-known strict interpretation in the face of laxity on the part of
the Saints in Utah. The first and third stanzas read:
The
Lord imparted from above
The
word of wisdom for our blessing,
But
shall it unto many prove
A
gift that is not worth possessing?
. . . .
Has
self denial grown a task?
Or
has that word been vainly spoken;
Or
why, I fain would humbly ask,
Why
is that word, so often broken.
This
poem, first published in August 1840, was later set to music by
George Careless and appeared in some LDS hymnals from 1875 to 1950.
(See note 2 below.) In a way it reminds me of one stanza of a song
Eliza wrote for the Sunday School in 1867 and is still in the current
LDS hymnal. The second stanza of “In Our Lovely Deseret”
focuses on the Word of Wisdom:
That
the children may live long, and be beautiful and strong
Tea
and coffee and tobacco, they despise.
Drink
no liquor and they eat but a very little meat;
They
are seeking to be great and good and wise.
Eliza’s
hope was that singing this hymn often enough would keep the Utah
Saints from the same laxness she saw in Nauvoo.
When
someone prominent in Nauvoo passed away, Eliza often wrote and
published poetic elegies or remembrances. Sometimes they included
elaborate headings that, themselves, revealed the admiration she and
others felt for the deceased. These headings may seem maudlin today,
but they resonated with the readers of that day.
For
example, Eliza’s third poem in the Times
and Seasons
(October 1840) was headed “ELEGY. On the death of the dearly
beloved, and much lamented father in Israel, Joseph Smith Sen. a
Patriarch in the church of Latter Day Saints; who died at Nauvoo,
Sept. 14th, 1840.” It eulogized the Prophet’s father as a
great and highly beloved man and ended with the assurance of his
eventual resurrection in glory. As the first half of the final stanza
said:
Though
his earthly part is sleeping
Lowly,
‘neath the prairie sod;
Soon
the grave will yield its keeping —
Yield
to life, the man of god.
In
a similar manner Eliza eulogized U.S. President William Henry
Harrison (June 1, 1841), who died after only a month in office but
who was admired by the Latter-day Saints largely because he had
opposed Martin Van Buren in the 1840 election.
Another
poem (September 1, 1840) extolled Don Carlos Smith, brother of the
Prophet and editor of the Times
and Seasons.
After
the death of Robert Thompson, co-editor of the Times
and Seasons,
she published a poem of comfort to his wife, Mercy (September 15,
1841). In the same issue she published lines of comfort to the
mourning relatives of Oliver Granger. That poem, which began “Hark!
From afar; a funeral knell,” was later set to music and
included in LDS hymnals until 1927.
“Thou
aged saint, can words avail” (August 15, 1842) was intended to
comfort John Henry David Tyson, whose son had been killed
accidentally by a rifle shot. “The Hero’s Reward”
(March 1, 1843) memorialized Elder George W. Gee, who died while on a
mission in Pittsburgh. “To Mrs. Parley P. Pratt” (March
1, 1844) was written to the wife of Elder Parley P. Pratt after the
death of their son Nathan. Likewise, “To Mrs. Sylvia P. Lyon”
(March 15, 1844) was written to comfort the wife of Windsor Lyon
after the death of their three-year-old daughter, their third child
to die in infancy.
In
the same issue of the paper Eliza published her “Reflections at
the funeral of Joel F. Scovill....” This poem reflected, as
well as anything could, the attitude of many a faithful Saint toward
life and death. It began:
The
spirit had departed and had left
The
mortal tenement a lifeless form!
I
sat beside his coffin, but for him
I
had no tears to shed. How could I weep?
His
years, indeed, had been but few, but then
He
was a saint, and he has gone to join
The
spirits of the just. There was to him
No
bitterness in death. The pow’r of faith
Imparted
through the glorious gospel of
The
Son of God has shorn the monster of
His
terrors and sting. . . .
....
Freed
from mortality and all its ills;
To
die as he has died, is endless gain.
....
[Later,
after showing great feeling for the bereaved parents, she continued]
My
heart was moved with tenderness; and grief
For
one short moment weigh’d my feelings down
But
then the spirit of the living God
Waked
with its light the vision of my mind,
And
I exclaim’d within myself, all, all
Is
well. He’s gone to do a work for them
Of
everlasting consequence; and they,
Ere
long shall understand the purposes
Of
him who holds the destinies of man;
In
this their present loss; and then their joy
Will
be unspeakable.
On
June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were brutally
murdered at Carthage, Illinois. Though his death tore at her
heartstrings like little else could have, Eliza could still say
nothing publicly about the fact that Joseph was, in fact, her
husband. However, she quickly took pen in hand and four days later
published “The Assassination of Gen’s Joseph Smith and
Hyrum Smith First Presidents of the Church of Latter-day Saints; Who
Were Massacred by a Mob, in Carthage, Hancock County, Ill., on 27th
June, 1844.” This heartfelt elegy was meant to reflect the
voice of an entire shocked and bereaved community. As Jill Derr and
Karen Davidson have described it:
In
this funeral elegy ERS speaks as the Saint’s communal poetic
voice, expressing their collective grief. She apostrophizes, in the
formal style of an epic lament, first the heavens, then the state of
Illinois, the murderers themselves, the “shades of our patriot
fathers,” “Columbia,” and “persecution”....
Even as she excoriates those responsible and cries out for revenge,
her main purpose is to place Smith within the pantheon of sacred
martyrs (Derr and Davidson, 296).
The
elegy begins:
Ye
heavens attend! Let all the earth give ear!
Let
Gods and Seraphs, men and angels hear —
The
worlds on high — the universe shall know
What
awful scenes are acted here below!
Had
nature’s self a heart, her heart would bleed
At
the recital of that horrid deed;
For
never, since the Son of God was slain
Has
blood so noble, flow’d from human vein
As
that which now, on God for vengeance calls
From
“freedom’s ground” — from Carthage prison
walls.
The
85-line elegy continued to bemoan the loss of the prophets who, Eliza
emphasized, had broken no laws but had been sacrificed to “appease
the ragings of a brutish clan.” She also prayed for the God of
Jacob to support the Saints as they mourned their prophet. At the end
she also admonished the mourners:
Ye
Saints! Be still, and know that god is just —
With
steadfast purpose in his promise trust;
Girded
with sackcloth, own his mighty hand,
And
wait his judgments on this guilty land!
The
noble martyrs now have gone to move
The
cause of Zion in the courts above.
Eliza
could not express what was no doubt her deepest heartache, the loss
of her husband, for her marriage to him remained a secret. However,
when she wrote her “Sketch of My Life” many years later
she told of the spiritual experience that convinced her that plural
marriage was of divine origin, bore witnesses of how she learned to
love it, and told of her marriage to Joseph Smith. She also harked
back to the time she saw the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum lying
together — a sight, she said, that would appall the heart of
any true American. But, she continued, “What it was for loving
wives and children, the loyal heart may feel,
but let language
keep silent!”
(Underline in the original. See Beecher, Personal
Writings,
17.) Clearly, this was an expression of the deep pain she felt inside
but could not utter at the time.
Persecution,
sorrow, and death were certainly not the only things Eliza captured
with her pen. In fact, they were only a small part of all she wrote.
In the pages of the Times
and Seasons
she covered such things as love of country, conversion, appreciation
for living individuals, and various important happenings in Nauvoo.
In
“Columbia — My Country” (published in the Quincy
Whig
November 14, 1840 and republished in the Times
and Seasons
on December 1), Eliza praised America by contrasting it with other
places she had read about. At the end, however, she could not help
but remind her readers of the fact that they had just been driven out
of the place they considered Zion:
But
Oh! I find no country yet,
Like
our Columbia, dear;
And
often times almost forget I
live an exile here.
At
times she became autobiographical. “The Narrow Way”
(March 1, 1841) began “When I espouse’s the cause of
truth,” and told of her conversion and commitment. “Saturday
Evening Thoughts” (January 2, 1843) also briefly recalled her
conversion and then looked to the future. “The Ode of Genius to
Truth” (January 1, 1844) was not autobiographical but, in a
sense, it was related. “I’ll sing to thee, O Truth!”
it began, and went on to personify and praise “Truth” in
the most glowing of terms.
She
also sang not just of herself but of other people she admired. “To
Elder L. Snow, London, Eng.” (May 2, 1842) was addressed to her
missionary brother, Lorenzo. It rejoiced in the grand work he was
doing for the Lord but also reminded him of how Eliza and others in
Nauvoo felt about him and would welcome him home when his work was
done. Before he left England her brother arranged to have two copies
of The Book of Mormon presented to Queen Victoria. This led Eliza to
compose a poem, “Queen Victoria” (January 1, 1844),
celebrating what this might mean. She described the grandeur of the
queen’s domain then turned the poem into a wish:
O
would she now her influence bend —
The
influence of royalty,
Messiah’s
kingdom to extend
And
Zion’s “nursing mother” be.
John
Taylor was with Joseph Smith when he was murdered, and Taylor himself
was wounded. “To Elder John Taylor” (August 1, 1844) was
an impassioned tribute to him and what he endured during that
dreadful time. Eliza concluded the tribute with:
And
by all generations, of thee shall be said,
“WITH
THE BEST OF THE PROPHETS IN PRISON HE BLED.”
After
the death of Joseph Smith, the leadership of the Church passed to the
Quorum of the Twelve, with Brigham Young as its president. He, then,
became the effective leader of the Church. Affirming her loyalty to
the new Church leader, as well as to the principle of plural
marriage, Eliza secretly married him for “time” (i.e.,
not “time and all eternity,” as with Joseph Smith). Their
mutual respect and affection grew deep over the years.
At
this time, however, many in the Church opposed Brigham Young’s
leadership, some still wondering where the true mantel had fallen.
Eliza’s “To President Brigham Young” (February 15,
1845) emphasized the surety and importance of his new station.
Undoubtedly she was doing her part to unify the minds of the Saints
on the matter of who God had chosen to lead.
Perhaps
referring to the famous meeting in August 1844, when many people
testified that as Brigham spoke they heard the voice of Joseph and,
in some cases, saw Joseph in his place (see note 3), Eliza wrote, in
part,
Thou
has gained, like Elisha, a rich behest,
For
the mantle of Joseph seems to rest
Upon
thee, while the spirit and pow’r divine
That
inspir’d his heart, is inspiring thine.
Joseph
Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, has been described as a woman
of exceptional “spiritual and social vitality.” Highly
revered in Nauvoo, she was the focus of still another adulatory poem
by Eliza. “The Venerable Lucy Smith” (May 15, 1845)
describes much of what Lucy endured over the years as she witnessed
the Restoration, followed her son from place, and saw his suffering
as well as that of her husband. In one section Eliza referred to an
incident that demonstrated not only the brutality of their enemies
but the faith of both Lucy and her husband:
She
once beheld
Her
lord, her consort dragg’d to prison while
With
tears and supplicating words, she plead
His
innocence, and begg’d for his release.
“Commit
the Book of Mormon to the flames”
Replied
the “officer of justice” “and
Your
husband shall be liberated”: But
Her
noble spirit scorn’d to purchase his
Release,
on terms so base! At such a price!
She
lov’d the truth and fear’d the God of heav’n.
Finally,
Eliza wrote not just for Nauvoo but for the ages. Several of her
poems were set to music and became hymns. Ten of these are still in
the current LDS hymnal:
Again
We Meet around the Board - #186
Awake,
Ye Saints of God, Awake! - #17
Behold
the Great Redeemer Die - #191
Great
Is the Lord - #77
How
Great the Wisdom and the Love - #195
In
Our Lovely Deseret - #307
O
My Father - #292
The
Time Is Far Spent - #266
Though
Deepening Trials - #122
Truth
Reflects upon Our Senses - #273
The
thing about poetry, or at least the poetry we see in Church history,
is that through it we can feel
something of the past. Some of Eliza’s work may not be “great”
poetry, but it is profoundly important poetry for it mirrors a
society. In it we see not just her but also the faith and feelings of
those who read the Times
and Seasons,
for if it did not resonate with their readers the editors would not
have published it. We are glad they did.
NOTES
1.
The best way to find publications about Eliza is to go online to
mormonhistory.byu.edu.
In that online bibliography go to the advanced search and type in
Snow, Eliza. as a subject. There you will find scores of publications
listed. If you click on some of them you will see that they were
published in BYU
Studies
and a link is provided to the article in that journal.
Example:
you will find an article by Jill Mulvay Derr and Matthew Grow titled
“Letters on Mormon Polygamy and Progeny: Eliza R. Snow and
Martin Luther Holbrook, 1866-1869.” It was published in BYU
Studies, and at the bottom of the entry there is a link that will
allow you to read the full text of the article online.
Since
that bibliography is so readily available, I will list here only two
books that I consider especially important. Maureen Ursenbach
Beecher, The
Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow
(Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995); Jill Mulvay Derr
and Karen Lynn Davidson, Eliza
R. Snow: The Complete Poetry
(Provo and Salt Lake City: BYU Press and University of Utah Press,
2009). The latter book is especially valuable to the subject of this
column for it publishes all of the poems written by Eliza. The
authors have written a fine introduction as well as separate
introductions to each poem. Most of the information in this column,
and especially the notes on the poems, is based on this book.
Also
online, at http://www.hoffmanhouse.com/eliza.html,
you can find it set to music, under the title “The Lord
Imparted From Above,” by W. P. Peterson and arranged by Robert
Hoffman and published as sheet music. On the same website you can
listen to that arrangement being sung.
Note
3. See Lynne Watkins Jorgensen, “The Mantle of the Prophet
Joseph Smith Passes to Brother Brigham: One Hundred Twenty-one
Testimonies of a Collective Spiritual Witness,” in Opening
the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations 1820-1844,
ed. John W. Welch (Provo and Salt Lake City: BYU Press and Deseret
Book, 2005), 372-477.
JAMES B. ALLEN, Professor of History, Emeritus, Brigham Young University
James B. Allen was born June 14, 1927, in Ogden, Utah. He married Renée Jones, April 16,
1953. They have five children, twenty-one grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren . He
received his bachelor's degree in history form Utah State University in 1954, a master's degree
from Brigham Young University in 1956, and the Ph.D. from the University of Southern
California in 1963.
Active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all his life, he has served in numerous
positions, including bishop of two BYU wards and a member of 5 different BYU high councils.
In 1999-2000 he and Renée served as missionaries at the Boston Institute of Religion.
He has also been active in the Republican party and twice served as a delegate to the state
convention.
In his professional career, he taught in the LDS Seminary and Institute program from 1954-63,
after which he was a member of the faculty at Brigham Young University until his retirement in
1992. From 1972 to 1979 he also served as Assistant Church Historian (splitting his time
between BYU and the Church Historical Department). He was chair of the History Department
from 1981-1987 then, during his last five years at BYU, he was honored to hold the Lemuel
Hardison Redd, Jr. Chair in Western American History. After his retirement he became
associated with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at BYU, where
for several years he held an appointment as a Senior Research Fellow.
He has also been active in various professional organizations, including the Western History
Association (served on various committees, and as chair of a program committee) and the
Mormon History Association (president, 1971-73). He has been on various boards of editors and
advisory committees and presented numerous papers at the meetings of various historical
associations.
As a researcher and writer he is the author, co-author, or co-editor of fourteen books or
monographs and around 90 articles relating to Western American history and Mormon history,
as well as numerous book reviews in professional journals. Some of his books include the
following:
The Company Town in the American West (University of Oklahoma Press, 1966)
The Story of the Latter-day Saints (with Glen M. Leonard; Deseret Book Company, 1976;
2nd edition 1992)
Trials of Discipleship: The Story of William Clayton, a Mormon (University of Illinois
Press, 1987). Revised and republished in 2002 by BYU Press under the title No
Toil Nor Labor Fear: The Story of William Clayton. In 1986, while still in press,
this book won the prestigious David Woolley Evans and Beatrice Cannon Evans
Biography Award.
Men With a Mission: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles, 1837-1841
(with Ronald K. Esplin and David J. Whittaker, Deseret Book Company, 1992)
Studies in Mormon History 1830-1997: An Indexed Bibliography (with Ronald W.
Walker and David J. Whittaker; University of Illinois Press, 2000). Allen was the
lead investigator for this important work. It lists, and provides an index to, all the
significant books, articles, doctoral dissertations and master's theses on Mormon
history produced between 1830 and 1997. It has been widely hailed as one of the
most important aids to finding LDS history ever published. In 2001 the Mormon
History Association awarded the authors a special citation for the publication of
this book. After that, working with J. Michael Hunter, Allen continued to update
the bibliography database. Hunter has now taken over the updating, and the
database is online at mormonhistory.byu.edu.
Mormon History (with Ronald W. Walker and David J. Whittaker, University of Illinois
Press, 2001). This book is a history of the writing of Mormon history, from the
days of Joseph Smith until the present time.
Over the years he has received various awards, honors, and recognitions, besides those indicated
above. Among them were several "best article" awards; the Karl G. Maeser Research and
Creative Arts Award, Brigham Young University, 1980; named Distinguished Faculty Lecturer,
Brigham Young University, 1984; named a Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society, July 15,
1988; the Leonard J. Arrington Award for a Distinctive Contribution to the cause of Mormon
History, awarded by the Mormon History Asociation, 2008.
James and Renée have enjoyed living in Orem, Utah since 1963.
He currently serves as Sunday School President in his ward, and he and Renée have been officiators
in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple since 2004.