John Keble
Biography of John Keble

John Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.
Life and Writings
Early Life
He was born in Fairford, Gloucestershire where his father, the Rev. John Keble, was Vicar of Coln St. Aldwyns. He attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and, after a brilliant academic performance there, became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and was for some years a tutor and examiner in the University. While still at Oxford he took Holy Orders in 1815, and became first a curate to his father, and later curate of St Michael and St Martin's Church, Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire.
The Christian Year
Meantime, he had been writing 'The Christian Year', which appeared in 1827, and met with an almost unparalleled acceptance. Though at first anonymous, its authorship soon became known, with the result that Keble was in 1831 appointed to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, which he held until 1841. Victorian scholar Michael Wheeler calls The Christian Year simply "the most popular volume of verse in the nineteenth century". In his essay on "Tractarian Aesthetics and the Romantic Tradition," Gregory Goodwin claims that The Christian Year is "Keble’s greatest contribution to the Oxford Movement and to English literature." As evidence of that Goodwin cites E. B. Pusey’s report that ninety-five editions of this devotional text were printed during Keble’s lifetime, and "at the end of the year following his death, the number had arisen to a hundred-and-nine." By the time the copyright expired in 1873, over 375,000 copies had been sold in Britain and 158 editions had been published. Notwithstanding its widespread appeal among the Victorian readers, the popularity of Keble’s The Christian Year quickly faded in the twentieth century.
Tractarianism and Vicar of Hursley
In 1833 his famous Assize Sermon on "national apostasy" gave the first impulse to the Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian movement. Along with his colleagues, including John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey, he became a leading light in the movement, but did not follow Newman into the Roman Catholic church.
In 1835 he was appointed Vicar of Hursley, Hampshire, where he settled down to family life and remained for the rest of his life as a parish priest at All Saints Church. He was a profound influence on a near neighbour, the author Charlotte Mary Yonge.
Other Writings
In 1846 he published another book of poems, Lyra Innocentium. Other works were a Life of Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and an edition of the Works of Hooker. After his death appeared Letters of Spiritual Counsel, and 12 volumes of Parish Sermons. Of Keble, John Cousins says, in the 1910 A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature:
The literary position of Keble must mainly rest upon The Christian Year, the object of which was, as described by the author, to bring the thoughts and feelings of the reader into unison with those exemplified in the Prayer Book. The poems, while by no means of equal literary merit, are generally characterised by delicate and true poetic feeling, and refined and often extremely felicitous language; and it is a proof of the fidelity to nature with which its themes are treated that the book has become a religious classic with readers far removed from the author's ecclesiastical standpoint and general school of thought. Keble was one of the most saintly and unselfish men who ever adorned the Church of England, and, though personally shy and retiring, exercised a vast spiritual influence upon his generation.
Biographies
Two lives of Keble have been written, by John Taylor Coleridge (1869) and by the Rev. Walter Lock (1895). In 1963 Georgina Battiscombe wrote a biography titled John Keble: a Study in Limitations. John Keble died in Bournemouth at the Hermitage Hotel, after visiting the area to try and recover from a long term illness as he believed the sea air had therapeutic qualities. He is buried in All Saints churchyard in Hursley.
Legacy
Keble's feast day is kept on 14 July (the anniversary of his Assize Sermon) in the Church of England, and on 29 March (the anniversary of his death) elsewhere in the Anglican Communion. Keble College, a college of the University of Oxford, was founded in his memory.
John Keble's Works:
The Christian Year
Lyra Innocentium
Life of Wilson,
Bishop of Sodor and Man
the Works of Hooker
Letters of Spiritual Counsel
Parish Sermons (12 volumes)
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John Keble Poems
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Palm Sunday
Ye whose hearts are beating high With the pulse of Poesy, Heirs of more than royal race, Fram’d by Heaven’s peculiar grace, -
Good Friday
Is it not strange, the darkest hour That ever dawned on sinful earth Should touch the heart with softer power For comfort than an angel's mirth? -
Blest Are The Pure In Heart
Blest are the pure in heart, For they shall see our God; The secret of the Lord is theirs; Their soul is Christ’s abode. -
Third Sunday In Lent
See Lucifer like lightning fall, Dashed from his throne of pride; While, answering Thy victorious call, The Saints his spoils divide; -
Fifth Sunday In Lent
The historic Muse, from age to age, Through many a waste heart-sickening page Hath traced the works of Man: But a celestial call to-day -
Third Sunday After Epiphany
I marked a rainbow in the north, What time the wild autumnal sun From his dark veil at noon looked forth, As glorying in his course half done, -
Ash Wednesday
"Yes--deep within and deeper yet The rankling shaft of conscience hide, Quick let the swelling eye forget The tears that in the heart abide. -
Second Sunday In Lent
"And is there in God's world so drear a place Where the loud bitter cry is raised in vain? Where tears of penance come too late for grace, As on the uprooted flower the genial rain?" -
Sun Of My Soul
Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear, It is not night if Thou be near; O may no earthborn cloud arise To hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes. -
Ascension Day
Soft cloud, that while the breeze of May Chants her glad matins in the leafy arch, Draw'st thy bright veil across the heavenly way Meet pavement for an angel's glorious march: -
Gunpowder Treason
Beneath the burning eastern sky The Cross was raised at morn: The widowed Church to weep stood by, The world, to hate and scorn. -
Holy Matrimony
The voice that breathed o'er Eden, That earliest wedding day The primal marriage blessing, It hath not passed away. -
Evening
'Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze, Fast fading from our wistful gaze; You mantling cloud has hid from sight The last faint pulse of quivering light. -
Easter Eve
At length the worst is o'er, and Thou art laid Deep in Thy darksome bed; All still and cold beneath yon dreary stone Thy sacred form is gone;
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Christmas Day
What sudden blaze of song
Spreads o'er th' expanse of Heaven?
In waves of light it thrills along,
Th' angelic signal given -
"Glory to God!" from yonder central fire
Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry choir;
Like circles widening round
Upon a clear blue river,