Poetry Codex

German

Paul Gerhardt

1607–1676

Paul Gerhardt was born in Gräfenhainichen in Saxony in 1607 and died at Lübben in 1676. A Lutheran pastor, he served at Mittenwalde from 1651 and from 1657 as deacon of St Nicholas's church in Berlin; in 1666 he lost that post for refusing to sign an edict restricting doctrinal controversy, and from 1669 he was archdeacon at Lübben.

His hymns, many of them set to melodies by Johann Crüger, are among the best known in German Protestant worship. The English versions here are Catherine Winkworth's in Lyra Germanica (1855).

Poems (14)

  1. How shall I meet Thee? How my heart
  2. Thee, O Immanuel, we praise
  3. Ah wounded Head! Must Thou
  4. Cometh sunshine after rain
  5. Come to Thy temple here on earth
  6. If God be on my side
  7. Go forth, my heart, and seek delight
  8. Be thou content; be still before
  9. Shall I not sing praise to Thee
  10. The golden sunbeams with their joyous gleams
  11. Now all the woods are sleeping
  12. Trust in Providence
  13. Living by Christ
  14. Zechariah 12:10

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