This poetess had a few questions that she wanted to record
as she felt the loss of a loved one in her 35th year. Frances Ridley
Havergal was also travelling that year of 1871 with a friend, a time for appreciation of His
creation that struck her. These were just a few of the circumstances about her
as Havergal penned the poem “Is It for Me?” Had she really doubts in her mind,
as she thought about what lay ahead? Did this often-sick, but relatively young
woman wonder whether her life would be cut short? Her poetry may also have been
a learned response, the imitation of a parent she now could only remember, but to
whom she could no longer speak.
Poetry was a craft that Frances learned from her father as a
child, and which she used throughout her brief but productive life. William
Havergal’s family, including his daughter Frances, lived in Anglican England
where he ministered and composed verse and hymn, passing along key parts of his
character to his children. While one brother Henry followed in his father’s
footsteps as a ‘man of the cloth’ and an organist, Francis adopted her father’s
poetic trait. Frances was a precocious girl who could read at age 4 and was
writing verse at age 7. She learned several languages, and memorized several
books of the bible, equipping her with a mind and a heart tuned specially for
hymn-writing as an adult. These must have girded her spirit too, for she lost
both parents before she was 40 – her mother at age 11, and her father when she
was 34. The second loss was in 1870, the year before she would write her
poem-question “Is It for Me?” It’s reported that her father’s death made her faith
more acutely real for Frances, and perhaps that and her travel with a friend
the following year played roles in the words she would write. She visited Switzerland
with her friend Elizabeth Clay in 1871 when “Is It…” was composed. She marveled
at the scenery before her eyes, with a growing appreciation for the Creator. You
can sense the amazement still in her consciousness in the words of the poem she
crafted, a woman who felt undeserving of her status in God’s kingdom. The few
years of this particular period may have been something of a life turning
point, as something coalesced inside her. Shortly thereafter, around 1873, she began
to fully devote herself to lifting Jesus in all her efforts. It’s almost as if
she was answering her own question ‘Is it for me?’, with a realization that God’s
answer was indeed ‘yes’ to her.
Frances would spend but a few years living her deepened
devotion following “Is It for Me?” Sickness became more common and serious for
her, finally taking her life in 1879 when she was just 42. But, she’d been
prepared, with an attitude of joy in her last hours despite the pain that
tormented her physically. She must have imagined it in many of her thoughts
that are recorded poetically. These included words from the concluding verse of
the hymn she’d written eight years earlier…’never
grieve Thee more’. She meant it, in life and in death. May we all.
See this site for all the
verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/s/i/isitform.htm
See this site for further biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Ridley_Havergal
See this site for further biographic information:
See extensive biography here: http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bhavergal4.html
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