Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe

Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676). Written in 1647 and first published in Johann Crüger*’s Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648), in ten 4-line stanzas. EG prints a nine-verse text, omitting verse 3 (the subject is Satan, continued from verse 2): Ja, Vater, als er suchte, Daß er mich fressen möchte, War ich in deinem Schoße, Dein Flügel mich beschlosse. Yea, father, as he seeks That with which he would like to trap me, Were I in thy breast Thy wing would protect me.   The hymn is a moving prayer for morning (it is in the ‘Morgen’ section, at EG 446), in which the poet brings his morning sacrifice: his incense and his sacrificial ram are his prayers and his hymns...