Whence shall my tears begin? (Joseph Barnby)

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  • (Posted 2018-11-15)  CPDL #52046:         
Editor: James Gibb (submitted 2018-11-15).   Score information: A4, 1 page, 73 kB   Copyright: CPDL
Edition notes: Transcribed from the edition on IMSLP. Note values halved.

General Information

Title: Whence shall my tears begin?
Tune: xxxx
Composer: Joseph Barnby
Lyricist: John Mason Neale

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: SacredHymn   Meter: 66. 86. 10 10

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1897 in Hymn Tunes, no. 77, p. 38
Description: 

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text


1  Whence shall my tears begin?
What first-fruits shall I bear
Of earnest sorrow for my sin?
Or how my woes declare?
O Thou! the merciful and gracious one
Forgive the foul transgressions I have done.

2  With Adam I have vied,
Yea, passed him, in my fall;
And I am naked now, by pride
And lust made bare of all;
Of Thee, O God, and that celestial band,
And all the glory of the promised land.

3  No earthly Eve beguiled
My body into sin:
A spiritual temptress smiled,
Concupiscence within:
Unbridled passion grasped the unhallowed sweet:
Most bitter - ever bitter - was the meat.

4  If Adam’s righteous doom,
Because he dared transgress
Thy one decree, lost Eden’s bloom
And Eden’s loveliness:
What recompence, O Lord, must I expect,
Who all my life Thy quickening laws neglect?


5  By mine own act, like Cain,
A murderer was I made:
By mine own act my soul was slain,
When Thou wast disobeyed:
And lusts each day are quickened, warring still
Against Thy grace with many a deed of ill.

6  Thou formed’st me of clay,
O heav’nly Potter! Thou
In fleshly vesture didst array,
With life and breath endow.
Thou who didst make, didst ransom, and dost know
To Thy repentant creature pity show!

7  My guilt for vengeance cries;
But yet Thou pardonest all,
And whom Thou lov’st Thou dost chastise,
And mourn’st for them that fall:
Thou, as a Father, mark’st our tears and pain,
And welcomest the prodigal again.


8  I lie before Thy door,
O turn me not away!
Nor in mine old age give me o’er
To Satan for a prey!
But ere the end of life and term of grace,
Thou merciful! my many sins efface!

9  The priest beheld, and passed
The way he had to go:
A careless glance the Levite cast,
And left me to my woe:
But Thou, O Jesu, Mary’s Son, console,
Draw nigh, and succour me, and make me whole!

10.  Thou Spotless Lamb divine,
Who takest sins away,
Remove, remove, the load that mine
Upon my conscience lay:
And, of Thy tender mercy, grant Thou me
To find remission of iniquity.