Awake, glad soul, awake, awake. John Samuel Bewley Monsell. [Easter.] According to Dr. Monsell's preface to his Spiritual Songs, this vibrant Easter hymn was written during a winter spent on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea along the Italian Riviera, where he had traveled for the benefit of his health. It was first published in his Hymns of Love and Praise (1863, page 90) in 5 stanzas, and later expanded in Spiritual Songs for the Sundays and Holidays Throughout the Year (1875 edition) to 8 stanzas of 8 lines, the newly added stanzas being ii, iii, and iv.
Three distinct centos derived from this expanded text have entered common liturgical use:
In the Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (No. 178), composed of stanzas i, vi, vii, and viii.
In the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal (No. 40), composed of stanzas i, v, vii, and viii.
In the American College Hymnal (New York, 1876, No. 145), beginning with the line "The shade and gloom of life are fled", which comprises stanzas vi and viii in their unaltered form.
The full original text is also preserved in Philip Schaff's interdenominational anthology Christ in Song (1869-70).
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