‘Lead, Kindly Light’: A Poem on John Henry Newman, by Margaret Coats

Lead, Kindly Light

—in the voice of John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

Firmly I stand by virtue of belief,
Belief in God who wills we act and speak,
And aids our feebleness to sanctify
What is of earth, of humble worth unique.
As one to One, in love to Him I cleave.

I was not ever thus; pride ruled my will,
Seeking not moral but intellectual
Excellence, adrift toward liberalism . . .
But heart speaks to heart with grace effectual.
Roman I am, and loyal to England still.

We English Doctors of the Church are three,
Thanks to a native English-speaking pope
Acclaiming me with Anselm of Canterbury
And Bede of Jarrow, lengthening our scope:
Twelve hundred years of Christian history.

In college cloisters I had been revered,
Preaching a movement of heartfelt hope throughout
Oxford, beloved home of growth in knowing,
But stars of my lower heaven faded out
When shadows of antiquity appeared.

The controversies of the early ages
Clouded the middle way of which I wrote,
For Rome illumines the apostles’ faith
As Jesus teaches again from Peter’s boat.
In conscience sincere, I penned unsettling pages.

O that we could take the simple view
To feel one thing before us—to please God!
What gain is it to please even those we love,
Next to obeying a vision sent by God?
Day by day, let us beg and pray that we do.

Honesty I loved more than my name,
And Truth above dear friends—friends I still claim.
The faults that I committed I confess;
The Church is an inestimable gain.
Oxford became sweet spires, seen from the train.

At simple Saint Philip Neri’s Oratory,
I lived in Birmingham and undertook
A Doctor’s services for Church and country,
Counsel in countless letters, essays, books
Of doctrine and assent explanatory.

The angels praise the Holiest in the height;
With their concerns my poetry is rife:
They guard and guide and glow along our passage.
The immaterial is made of life
Unseen, but serving us. Lead, kindly light!

Poet’s Note

Saint John Henry Newman becomes the 38th Doctor of the Church (a theologian recognized to be of highest importance in Christian history) on November 1, 2025, by formal proclamation of Pope Leo XIV.

Newman was a major figure in the Oxford Movement, an effort to restore ancient tradition and devotion to the Church of England. As well, he was a lifelong opponent of liberalism in religion. The Oxford Movement was a success, with influence still felt in worldwide Anglicanism, including the recently established Anglican Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. But it became controversial when Newman and many others left the Church of England for the Roman. Upon study of Christian antiquity, they no longer saw the English church as a valid middle way between Protestantism and Catholicism, or as a third option equivalent to Greek and Latin tradition. Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865), a masterpiece of autobiography, explains in detail the process of his thought from childhood up to the 1845 conversion, and provides a full account of the later public controversy that led to the book’s writing. The present poem employs many expressions from the Apologia, such as “my lower heaven,” describing Newman’s high esteem for the Church of England.

As a Catholic, Newman became a priest of the Congregation of the Oratory, founded by Saint Philip Neri (1515–1595). While actively ministering in the large industrial city of Birmingham, he wrote extensively. His works include On the Development of Doctrine, A Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, and thousands of letters to persons seeking his counsel. Newman is the first Doctor of the Church whose theology is written in the English language, for Anselm of Canterbury and the Venerable Bede used Latin, although Bede recorded the earliest known English poem (Caedmon’s Hymn) in Anglo-Saxon.

Newman’s poetry has earned a place in the canon of Victorian literature. His poetic drama, The Dream of Gerontius, portrays the death and judgment of a man, largely from the perspective of various angels. A number of poems often seen as separate lyrics (for example, the hymn “Praise to the Holiest in the Height”) come from Gerontius. Newman’s best known and most loved poem is “The Pillar of Cloud,” with opening words, “Lead, kindly light.”

The 4-minute recording presents the poem in a choral setting composed by Kevin Allen for Newman’s 2010 beatification in Birmingham by Pope Benedict XVI.

Margaret Coats lives in California.  She holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University.  She has retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others.