Shall we not love thee, Mother dear

Shall we not love thee, Mother dear.  Sir Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877). This was written by Baker for the Appendix (1868) of the First Edition of A&M. It had eight stanzas, and was set for ‘The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’, with a note that it could be used ‘on other Festivals of St Mary’. It began with two rhetorical questions: Shall we not love thee, Mother dear,   Whom Jesus loves so well? And in His Temple year by year   Thy joy and honour tell? The third line, which is repeated in stanza 7, was altered in both places in the Second Edition of A&M (1875) to ‘And to his glory year by year’. The hymn describes the relationship between mother and child with great...