Down from the willow bough

Author: Caroline A. B. Southey

Southey, Caroline Ann, née Bowles, daughter of Charles Bowles, of Buckland, near Lymington, was born in 1786; married, in 1839, to Robert Southey, the poet; and died in 1854. Her publications include Solitary Hours, 1826; The Birthday, a Poem, 1836; and some prose works. Her Poetical Works were published in 1867; and her correspondence with Southey in 1882. A few pieces from her works are in common use as hymns:— 1. I weep, but not rebellious tears. For the Aged. Published in her Solitary Hours, 1826; and, again, in her Poetical Works, 1867, p. 285, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines. It is given, in full, in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858. To the line, "The faithful few made perfect there " (st. v., 1. 5), the fol¬lowing note is appen… Go to person page >

Down from the willow bough. [Good Friday.] We find this hymn in three forms:—(l) "Down from the willow bough," in Dr. Alexander's Augustine Hymn Book, 1849 and 1865 in 6 stanzas; (2) "Love, love divine, I sing," in Whiting's Hymns for the Church Catholic, 1882, composed of stanzas ii.-vi.; and (3) "Love, love on earth appears," in H. W. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, composed of stanzas iii.-v., two additional stanzas, and then stanza vi. from No. 1. In each of these collections the hymn is attributed to Mrs. Southey, née Bowles, but we have failed to identify it as hers.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)