Knocking, knocking, who is there

Knocking, knocking, ever knocking. Harriet Beecher Stowe* (1811-1896) Stowe’s poem, entitled ‘Knocking’,  appeared in her Light after Darkness: Religious Poems (1867), with the text ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock’ (Revelation 3: 20). The detailed description of the ‘many-fingered ivy-vine’, the weeds choking the passage, and the rusty unopened door all suggest the influence of the very popular painting by W. Holman Hunt, The Light of the World, painted between 1851 and 1853, and exhibited in 1854. Hunt’s painting was exhibited all over the world, copied twice by the artist himself, and frequently engraved (see Maas, 1984). Another hymn inspired by this painting was ‘O Jesu, thou art...