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.
I greatly enjoyed reading this piece, Margaret. It reminded me of a visit to the Birmingham Oratory years ago with my father, when we were shown around by the then Editor of Newman’s correspondence, the late Father Stephen Dessain. At one point Father Dessain reached casually for a battered old box and from it produced a Cardinal’s hat….
Wow, Martin! You’ll rarely hear that from me, but I’m impressed that you and your father were shown the hat, the ceremonial headwear that usually appears only as crest on a cardinal’s coat of arms. In the painting and photo illustrations for this post, Newman is wearing a more comfortable zucchetto. Thank you for letting me know my poem reminded you of a very special visit to the Oratory.
Well done, Margaret!!
Paul, I very much appreciate the Anglican review from yourself and Cynthia that made this a stronger and better poem, with Cynthia’s suggestion for the title. It was real Society cooperation!
Margaret, another amazing poem containing demonstrated mastery of English, skillful phraseology, depth of historical knowledge, and fascinating rhyme scheme. I am always entranced and edified by your wonderful works. I suspect you would have become such an accomplished poet even without having gone to Harvard. Thank you for providing the extensive “Poet’s Note” to assist me in comprehending the importance of what you portrayed in the poem and to reset the scene in my mind. FYI: When I was set to graduate from the U.S. Russian Institute in Germany, Marshal Goldman of the Political Science Department wrote the Army asking I be appointed as a Harvard Fellow. He had been alerted by a couple of Harvard Professors who were on loan to the USC Master’s degree program at the Institute, since I had a perfect A+ academic record while achieving my second MA degree. The Army though had a top-secret assignment for me when I graduated, so I did not have that opportunity. Also, noting your military background, my daughter was a Signal Corps Captain in Bosnia and Captain or Major in Iraq.
Thanks for your comment, Roy. A new Doctor of the Church is important, and his influence is likely to grow from this proclamation beyond our lifetimes, as Julian says below. I began reading Newman when I was in high school, and I worked on this poem from the paperback Apologia I had then. I didn’t at first want to write in his voice, but his very words kept returning to me. And I now know his beloved Oxford from many visits.
You and I must have had several opportunities to meet that didn’t happen. I declined Officer Candidate School and a bright future in the US Army, to go on as quickly as possible with my academic career, culminating at Harvard. The best way to get there is through recommendations such as you had. Congratulations on a daughter having risen to field grade officer overseas!
Another masterpiece in both composition and content. I was very surprised to see that only 38 Doctors of the Church have ever been granted. Since only 2 were Popes, this title really means something. Thanks yet again for enlightening all of us in a digestible and entertaining way.
Yes, Warren, there have been 267 Popes, and Newman is only the 38th writer to be named Doctor of the Church. He is a saint with sympathy for men and love for souls, as the 20,000+ letters he wrote by hand give witness. That’s more than one a day, in addition to other duties, which his bishop testified he never neglected. I’m happy to have made something digestible from such a voluminous output, most of it still unknown to me.
Thank you, Margaret, for this worthy poetic tribute and informative profile. I expect st. JHN’s influence in the Church will grow signicantly over the rest of the century.
For readers who aren’t aware, Elgar’s setting of The Dream of Gerontius is probably his best known choral work.
Thanks, Julian. I agree about the growth of influence, as Newman’s thought has already attracted much more attention in the 15 years since his beatification. The three works I mention in the note (in addition to the Apologia and the poetry) complement each other nicely, dealing with doctrine, the psychology of belief, and our own desperately needed educational ideals. In fact, these ideals correspond well with those of Saint John Fisher as Chancellor of Cambridge University in the 1500s. I was privileged to learn about those last year from Cardinal Nichols.
Thanks for mentioning Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, a major work of culture bringing together the talents of two great men to sing to us all. Hope you like Kevin Allen’s “Lead, Kindly Light,” too.
The Kevin Allen piece is for double choir SSAATTBB, with the men singing the first verse and women the second, and all eight voice parts only in the last verse. This provides a very rich harmony throughout, and special effects at the end. My favorite is “angel voices” clear but ethereal because sung only by Tenor 1 and Soprano 1, while the other six voices are softly holding out the word, “morn.”
How far the Anglican Church has fallen. Not even C.S. Lewis could pick things up. I have a Lithuanian wooden carving of the Pensive Christ, which watches over me in my office. He looks like he has a lot on His mind.
My daughter also has a Pensive Christ woodcarving from Lithuania. That kind of art implies limitless thought. You touched on its human aspect in your reply to me on your “Uncle Stanislaw” poem–in a way that also touches on Newman’s psychology of assent to faith and doctrine. You said, “The human mind is not able to process all of the processes going on in the surrounding world, but the human heart feels them insofar as the heart and the cosmos are parts of a single continuum.” Newman’s view of assent (when it is assent to an important matter) finds it a complex act of the whole man. That is, no one believes a truth or accepts faith simply because he is given a logical argument. That can help a great deal, but the process would be the work of the mind alone. As we see frequently, people can appear to understand an argument, yet not be convinced to firmly hold and support it. And to put doctrine into practice may require ongoing effort of the whole person. This surely has something to do with the “falling away” of churchmen about which you speak. All the more rapid when many go the same way!
Where did you get your Pensive Christ carving, C. B.?
The one I’m looking at here came from a local thrift store. His crown of thorns is chipped. I try to catch a glance at what he’s thinking but his eyes appear to be closed. Perhaps his eyelids are testing us.
Margaret, not only does this poem draw me in, but it’s enjoyable to read and learn about this faithful man.
Also… your comment are very educational.
Thank you, Laura. I’m glad the poem is attractive. The note on Newman’s life is long because so few among readers know much of him. That may change gradually, for those willing to learn. I highly recommend some of his own works, beginning with the poetry.
A fitting tribute not only to a Doctor of the Church, but a fine poet, too (I just read some of the saint’s poems last week, not anticipating his coming honor). My favorite feature of your work is your contextualization. I love the reference to Ss. Bede and Anselm, illustrating the long and glorious tradition of the Church in England. Your final line captures the essence of the saint from his writings: intellectual, yet imbued with a palpable humanity — “kindly light” indeed.
Thanks for your comment, Adam. You discovered, I’m sure, that Newman’s poems present a theology of angels in verse. He’s not the only poet among the Doctors, when we remember Ephrem the Syrian and Ambrose of Milan, who wrote so many hymns that hundreds more are attributed to him–and it becomes difficult to tell which are his own compositions. As a Doctor, Newman acquires more context of varied kinds (something I will be pondering) while bringing additional glory to England in his own kindly way.
Brilliant, Margaret! He is Doctor of the Church as of November 1, 2025!
This major historic news spreads slowly even among those most interested. Thank you for noticing!
Margaret, this is beautiful. The hymn tunes spring up in my inner ear as I read only to be twined into unexpected melodies yet unheard. The whole thing shimmers with opalized refractions of Newman’s recorded words and thoughts, some familiar to me, and others (I’m sure) that should be.
It was an occasion of great joy in our house and among friends and family beyond, when we learned that John Henry Newman was to be made a Doctor of the Church. Despite all the humiliations and perplexities that go with being a Roman Catholic these days, the light keeps filtering through, in moments such as this. The light is kindly and the water is fine!
Over the past week and a half, since we sang it as the final hymn at Sunday Mass, one of my children can’t seem to stop humming the tune of “Praise to the Holiest in the Height.”
Thank you, Monika! Your experience of this great event confirms me yet again in my gratitude for the lasting impression Newman has on my life and thought. If you didn’t notice, the Pope quoted “Lead Kindly Light” in the ceremony announcing Newman as the new Doctor of the Church. He interpreted the “encircling gloom” around us as nihilism and pessimism–and this represents very much more than a recommendation of facile optimism. Nihilism is the very denial of truth and of meaning in life, and consequently of any good way to live. But the way and the knowledge of it remain in clear and kindly light, despite the many things you describe as our perplexities and humiliations.