Biography of Bishop Reginald Heber
Reginald Heber was born on April 21st, 1783 to a wealthy family in Malpas, a town in Cheshire, England. In his youth, he excelled in poetry and verse. He not only read, but understood the Bible by age five. He attended Brasenose College, Oxford when he was 17 and earned two prizes for his poetry. His most popular and acclaimed poem Palestine won the Newdigate Prize and inspired his lifelong pursuit of writing hymns and poetry. In 1805, he departed for a grand tour of Europe, visiting Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. Heber served as Vicar of Hodnet for 16 years, until he was called to India, where he served as Bishop of Calcutta (modern day Kolkata). He died an early death, as many missionaries to India did at this time, at 43 years old in 1826.
Heber’s career as both a hymn writer for the church and a 19th century poet come into conflict. With the onset of the Romantic movement in England, paired with his interest in the emulation of his contemporaries style, Heber’s poetry was often described as literary, as he used the conventions and popular metaphors of the time in his church hymns. Heber was interested in experimenting with the classic hymnal structure as he admired his contemporaries Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott who in the fashion of the 19th century took a more relaxed approach to rhythm in their poetry. However, Heber learned that the Church was uninterested in his different rhythms when they declined to officially publish his hymns after he had already established a name for himself. After this, Heber’s published works returned to a strict hymnal rhythm. Heber is best known for his hymn “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” which is still sung in churches to this day. While the Virgina Lucas scrapbook contains one of Reginald Heber’s unpublished poems set to sheet music, he was prolific and popular enough to have a collection of his poetry published in a book almost 20 years after his death in 1841.
Bibliography
Banerjee, Jacqueline. “Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826).” The Victorian Web, 28 May 2011, https://victorianweb.org/religion/hymns/heber.html.
Heber, Reginald. "The Poetical Works of Reginald Heber" Archive.org, J. Murray, 1841.
“Reginald Heber.” Hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/person/Heber_Reginald.
“Reginald Heber.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Heber.