December 2: "O Sight of Anguish" (Occom's Carol)

O sight of anguish! view it near,

What weeping innocence is here?

A manger for his bed

Day two's obscure Christmas song is the first carol that I'm exploring (the defining feature being that the lyrics are on the theme of Christmas. (I don't feel like "Breakin' Up Christmas" qualifies as a carol because it's lyrics are so few and far between). Much like yesterday's installment, this one originates in America, but unlike yesterday's the origin is clearly known. I'm going to go out on a limb here and argue that "O Sight of Anguish" is probably one of the oldest American-made Christmas songs that is preserved today. But before you all get out your bottle rockets and fire up the "Heartland Country" playlist on Spotify (seriously, look it up, it's tremendous) it should be noted that this one is American in the truest sense, in that it was written by a Native American.

That right there is Samson Occom, the author of "O Sight of Anguish" and, apparently, a number of other hymns that are floating around somewhere in a dusty library, probably only accessible by climbing that cool ladder that only libraries have. Occom was born in a wigwam of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut in 1723, and was originally named Joshua Tomacham. He converted to Christianity as a teenager, and by 20 he was studying Latin and Hebrew and preparing for a career as a preacher. He became the first ordained Native American Presbyterian minister on August 30, 1759. His mentor, Eleazar Wheelock, intent on establishing a New England Indian Christian school, sent him to England to raise funds to build it. He spent a year and a half preaching across England, delivering between three and four hundred sermons and raising nearly 12,000 pounds (in today's dollars, a shitload of money). King George III apparently donated 200 of those personally. Rev. Wheelock took that windfall and established his school in Hanover, New Hampshire. Eventually Wheelock abandoned his missionary programs and the school became a regular college. Today we call it Dartmouth. Occam returned to live and preach among the Mohegans, and is probably best remembered for establishing Brothertown, which he envisioned as a sort of utopia for christian Indians. Samson Occom died there in 1792. 

Even though we still have tons of Occom's sermons and a handful of hymns in writing, he wasn't a composer, so what we're fancifully calling "hymns" are really just poems that I guess he hoped someone might say with some extra inflection in their voice. Tim Eriksen, who is an amazing performer, but probably should be recognized first for being a meticulous historian, did an amazing job putting the lyrics to a tune in the video above, but near as I can tell the music is entirely of his making. Unfortunately, for that reason, I don't have any other recorded versions of the carol to share. What I do have is the lyrics of the 5 verses that Occom wrote way back when. Thanks Sam!

Frodo wouldn't have made it very far without Sam

The words are far from happy-go-lucky. Matter of fact, the whole song is a downright dark way of telling how people treated Mary and Joseph when they were looking for lodging in Bethlehem. It also gives some indication of what those crooked innkeepers should have coming to them when Jesus got his comeuppance:

The brutes yield refuge to his woe

Men the worst brutes no pity show

Nor give him friendly aid

2 Why do no rapid thunders roll?

Why do no tempests rock the pole?

O miracle of grace!

Or why no angels on the wing

Warm for the honors of their king

To punish all the race?

Personally I really like the meter of the song, with the first two lines of each phrase rhyming and each third line rhyming with its pair... or something like that. I never really got into the mathematics of poetry. It's hard to deny that it's beautifully written, and I think unlike anything we have in our current arsenal of carols. As we all know, God was waaaaay more wrathful back in the day. The full lyrics are here, if you're interested (Tim Eriksen only sings 3 verses). As I said at the beginning, I like to think that this is one of our oldest American-originating carols, if not the oldest (the Puritans definitely weren't writing any in the rest of New England before this... that would've been a sin). Even if there's records of earlier carols, I think that Occom's story, and he being the author, makes this an underappreciated piece of American cultural history.