Eliza Scudder

Eliza Scudder (1821–1896) was a 19th-century American hymnwriter. Among her productions are several notable hymns including, "The Love of God", written in 1852; "Truth", which begins with the line, "Thou long disowned, reviled, oppressed"; "Lines for Music", which begins with "As the lost who vainly wander"; and the lyric poem, "The Vesper Hymn", written in 1874.

Early life Eliza Scudder was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1821. She was the daughter of Eliza (Bacon) and Elisha Gage Scudder. Both parents were from Barnstable on Cape Cod. Her father was a merchant in Boston and died when she was but an infant. Her mother lived till 1869. Her sister Rebecca, three years her senior, married, in 1845, Samuel Page Andrews, living first in Framingham, Massachusetts, and afterward in Salem, where Mr. Andrews was for many years clerk of the municipal court. Salem thus became one of Scudder's homes. There was a long period in the younger sister's childhood when she suffered from an affection of the eyes which never was wholly relieved, almost wholly cut off for long stretches of time from reading or from looking on the paper when she wrote. During this early period, she enjoyed the companionship of her sister. Something of the deep feeling she had for her was written into the verses, "The Laburnum", a dedicatory poem.

Scudder's uncle was the Unitarian divine, Edmund Hamilton Sears, known as the author of two Christmas hymns, "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night," and "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear". Horace E. Scudder, for some years editor of The Atlantic Monthly, was a relative of hers. Some of her memorable pieces include "Truth", which with the line, "Thou long disowned, reviled, oppressed."; "Lines for Music", its first line being "As the lost who vainly wander"; and one of Scudder's best productions, the lyric poem "The Vesper Hymn", written in 1874, its first line being, "The day is done; the weary day of thought and toil is past".

Death and legacy For some years, she lived in Boston, and later in life, made her home at Salem. The last few years of Scudder's life saw her compelled to move north and south as the seasons changed, and to be separated frequently from her sister. On September 27, 1896, Eliza's sister died after a very brief illness. Eliza left the house and went to her cousin's home, near by. In a few hours, Eliza was dead, too. The sisters were buried side by side in the graveyard at Weston, Massachusetts.

Posthumously that year, Horace Scudder edited a small volume of her poems entitled Hymns and Sonnets, published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. In the preface he remarks:—

Selected works "Epitaph on an Old Maid" "Lines for Music" "Out of the Shadow" "The Laburnum" "The Love of God" "The New Heaven" "The Quest" "The Transcendence of God" "Truth" "Vesper Hymn"