Dearest Jesu, we are here

Dearest Jesu, we are here. George Ratcliffe Woodward* (1848-1934), after Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684). This is a hymn loosely based on Clausnitzer’s ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier dich und dein Wort anzuhören’*. It was printed in three stanzas in Woodward’s Songs of Syon (1904). Two were included in the Second Supplement (1916) to the Second Edition of A&M. The omitted stanza was the second, presumably because of the awkward zeugma in line 5: Under forms of bread and wine Simple hearts in faith adore thee: Born of Mary, Son divine, Low we bow the knee before thee: Opening heart alike and coffer, Body, soul, to thee we offer. The last two lines have only the most tenuous...