Fan­ny Cros­by, 1868; first ap­peared in Songs of De­vo­tion, by How­ard Doane (New York: 1870).

Hers was an age of evan­gel­is­tic sing­ing miss­ions, and Fan­ny Cros­by’s hymns were al­ways in re­quest. So pop­u­lar was the lit­tle po­et­ess that she was in­vit­ed to speak at ma­ny places where these mis­sions were held. On one oc­ca­sion, it was at a state prison. Much was hoped for from this par­ti­cu­lar meet­ing. As Fan­ny was speak­ing—and her ve­ry blind­ness gave her pow­er—first one pris­on­er and then ano­ther would in­ter­rupt by call­ing on the good Lord not to pass me by.

Fanny told that she was so touched by the pleas of these men that she could not get the thought of them out of her mind; in­deed she said, I wrote the lines with the men’s plead­ing wail still in my ears.

Blanchard, pp. 76-7

W. How­ard Doane, 1870 (MIDI, NWC, PDF).