Waring, Anna Letitia

(1823-1910)

   Born at Plas-y-Velin, Neath, Glamorganshire, into a Quaker family, she learned Hebrew for the study of the poetry of the Old Testament, and daily read the Hebrew Psalter. Feeling more inclined toward the Anglicans, and following the example of her uncle, Samuel Miller Waring (1792-1827), a hymn writer and author of Sacred Melodies (1826), she was baptized at St. Martin's Anglican Church, Winnall, Winchester, in 1842. She was deeply involved in philanthropic work, especially the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, and visiting prisoners in the Bristol jail. She died unmarried at Clifton, Bristol. Some of her hymns are in modern hymnbooks. Her publications: Hymns and Meditations, 1850 (17th edition, 1896, and several American reprints). Additional Hymns, 1858. Days of Remembrance, 1886 (calendar of Bible texts, not poems). Some of her hymns/poems: "Abiding in Love," "Daily Mercies," "Father, I Know That All My Life," "Fellowship," "Homeward Led," "In Heavenly Love Abiding," "My Heart is Resting, O My God," "The Entered Year," "The Lowly Heart."

   Sources: A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Nineteenth-Century Women Poets: An Oxford Anthology. Isobel Armstrong and Joseph Bristow with Cath Sharrock, eds. Oxford University Press, 1996. Poetry Worth Remembering: An Anthology of Poetry. Roy W. Watson, ed. Brunswick, 1986. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm). Unity Hymns and Chorals. William Channing Gannett, ed. Unity Publishing Company, 1911.