"Sweet Singer of Israel"
Brilliant and charismatic, David Hyrum Smith was a poet, painter, singer, philosopher, naturalist, and highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the last son of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn on May 15, 1870.
David’s poetry often revealed his personality and emotional struggles.
I strive to win again the pleasant thought;
The music only speaks in mournful tone;
The very flowers wear a shade, and naught
Can bring again the halo that is gone;
And every company my soul hath sought,
Though crowds surround me, finds me still alone.
I turn unto my tasks with weary hands,
Grieving with sadness, knowing not the cause
Before my face a desert path expands,
I will not falter in the toil, nor pause;
Only, my spirit somehow understands
This mournful truth—I am not what I was.
His mental deterioration, starting with a probable breakdown early in 1870 ended with his death in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, where he had been confined for twenty-seven years.
Brilliant and charismatic, David Hyrum Smith was a poet, painter, singer, philosopher, naturalist, and highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the last son of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn on May 15, 1870.
David’s poetry often revealed his personality and emotional struggles.
I strive to win again the pleasant thought;
The music only speaks in mournful tone;
The very flowers wear a shade, and naught
Can bring again the halo that is gone;
And every company my soul hath sought,
Though crowds surround me, finds me still alone.
I turn unto my tasks with weary hands,
Grieving with sadness, knowing not the cause
Before my face a desert path expands,
I will not falter in the toil, nor pause;
Only, my spirit somehow understands
This mournful truth—I am not what I was.
His mental deterioration, starting with a probable breakdown early in 1870 ended with his death in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, where he had been confined for twenty-seven years.
"Sweet Singer of Israel"
Brilliant and charismatic, David Hyrum Smith was a poet, painter, singer, philosopher, naturalist, and highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the last son of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn on May 15, 1870.
David’s poetry often revealed his personality and emotional struggles.
I strive to win again the pleasant thought;
The music only speaks in mournful tone;
The very flowers wear a shade, and naught
Can bring again the halo that is gone;
And every company my soul hath sought,
Though crowds surround me, finds me still alone.
I turn unto my tasks with weary hands,
Grieving with sadness, knowing not the cause
Before my face a desert path expands,
I will not falter in the toil, nor pause;
Only, my spirit somehow understands
This mournful truth—I am not what I was.
His mental deterioration, starting with a probable breakdown early in 1870 ended with his death in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, where he had been confined for twenty-seven years.
Brilliant and charismatic, David Hyrum Smith was a poet, painter, singer, philosopher, naturalist, and highly effective missionary for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the last son of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. He married Clara Charlotte Hartshorn on May 15, 1870.
David’s poetry often revealed his personality and emotional struggles.
I strive to win again the pleasant thought;
The music only speaks in mournful tone;
The very flowers wear a shade, and naught
Can bring again the halo that is gone;
And every company my soul hath sought,
Though crowds surround me, finds me still alone.
I turn unto my tasks with weary hands,
Grieving with sadness, knowing not the cause
Before my face a desert path expands,
I will not falter in the toil, nor pause;
Only, my spirit somehow understands
This mournful truth—I am not what I was.
His mental deterioration, starting with a probable breakdown early in 1870 ended with his death in the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane in Elgin, where he had been confined for twenty-seven years.
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