Introduction

Biography

Homburg was clerk of the As­sizes and Coun­sel­or in Naum­burg. In 1648, he was ad­mit­ted to the Fruit­bear­ing So­cie­ty, and af­ter­ward be­came a mem­ber of the El­be Swan Or­der formed by Jo­hann Rist in 1660.

By his con­tem­po­rar­ies Hom­burg was re­gard­ed as a po­et of the first rank. His ear­li­er po­ems, 1638–53, were se­cu­lar, in­clud­ing ma­ny love and drink­ing songs.

Domestic trou­bles aris­ing from the il­lness­es of him­self and of his wife, and oth­er af­flict­ions, led him to seek the Lord, and the de­liv­er­anc­es he ex­pe­ri­enced from pes­ti­lence and from vio­lence led him to place all his con­fi­dence on God.

The col­lect­ed edi­tion of his hymns ap­peared in two parts at Je­na and Naum­burg, 1659, pt. i. as his Geist­lich­er Lied­er, Erst­er Theil, with 100 hymns [en­graved ti­tle, Naum­burg, 1658]; and pt. ii as the An­der Theil with 50 hymns. In the pre­face he speaks of them as his Sun­day la­bours, and says, I was spe­cial­ly in­duced and com­pelled to their com­po­si­tion by the anx­ious and sore do­mes­tic af­flict­ions by which God…has for some time laid me aside. They are dis­ting­uished for sim­pli­c­ity, firm faith, and live­li­ness, but oft­en lack po­et­ic vi­gor and are too sombre.

Quoted in Ju­li­an