Love Lifted Me -- James Rowe

He’d had a conversion experience in either his native land or afterwards in the new world of America. And, though it may have been an experience that dawned on him gradually, it evidently inspired him to compose words for “Love Lifted Me” while he was in Connecticut with a musical collaborator. James Rowe was an Irish-born American who tried his hand at several vocations, so he wasn’t afraid to venture into something new and then change his mind. It must have been one of these episodes that caused him to reflect on what he’d been doing, making him remember what, or whom, had pushed him to make a decision.

James Rowe was an immigrant who’d had a number of jobs and had lived in several places by the time he composed an ode to love in his mid-40’s. It wouldn’t be surprising if a particular one had influenced his inner being when he wrote the words to “Love Lifted Me” in 1912.  We know not the specific details, except that his daughter reported that Rowe and the musical contributor, Howard E. Smith, worked in tandem on the song while they were in what is today Westport (then Saugatuck), Connecticut (see map here).   

She must have seen these two in action on other songs, but was the song’s sentiment also known for a particular episode, or rather a composite illustration from Rowe’s life? He’d worked for the Irish government before emigrating at age 24, and then subsequently lived and worked on the railroads and as an inspector for the Hudson River Humane Society in New York state, so we could say it was perhaps during one of these periods that he felt in trouble spiritually. He felt ‘far from the peaceful shore’ for some reason, as he revealed straight away in his opening verse. Rowe wasn’t just a flash in the pan, as a poet-hymnist, for he wrote some 2,600 songs over his life. Evidently, he had a spark that wouldn’t go out, so whether the Divine he’d discovered was born internally from a singular or multiple incidents, it stayed with him. He worked with at least three musical publishers in Texas and Tennessee, and even later while living in Vermont he still composed, this time verses for greeting cards in partnership with his artist-daughter. The writing bug was still young in James Rowe, even as his physical being grew old.

One could safely assume that James Rowe’s witness through writing was in him for most of his life. When did it start and how long did it endure? With 2,600 songs in his album, Rowe must have been at this for many years, including some in which he employed a pseudonym ‘James S. Apple’, a tactic other prolific songwriters used to allow more of their creations to be published.  He may have been trying to hide his fingerprints at times, but he certainly wasn’t trying to conceal to whom his allegiance belonged, and being rescued was not a hidden or forgotten event, no matter what name he used. But, Rowe doesn’t dwell on his once-lost condition; instead, he uses most of the song to exult in the liberation, and thereby draw others there too. This ‘Lover’ never quit on Rowe, and maybe that’s what we can see reflected in his life’s work. Persevere. He did, and still does.       

Information on the song’s composer was obtained from the book “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; and the link here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/o/w/rowe_j.htm

Some scant information on the song’s development is found here, along with text of all three verses of the hymns: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/o/v/lovelift.htm