Why Did Henry Leave the Tattered Man Again

"Footprints", also known every bit "Footprints in the Sand", is a popular allegorical religious poem. Information technology describes a person who sees two pairs of footprints in the sand, one of which belonged to God and another to him or herself. At some points the 2 pairs of footprints dwindle to ane; information technology is explained that this is where God carried the protagonist.

Content [edit]

This pop text is based in Christian behavior and describes an experience in which a person is walking on a embankment with God. They leave 2 sets of footprints in the sand. The tracks correspond stages of the speaker'southward life. The two trails dwindle to one, especially at the everyman and most hopeless moments of the person'south life. When questioning God, believing that the Lord must have abased his love during those times, God gives the explanation, "During your times of trial and suffering, when yous meet only one set of footprints, it was and so that I carried you."

[edit]

The authorship of the poem is disputed, with a number of people claiming to have written it. In 2008, Rachel Aviv in a Poetry Foundation article^[1] discusses the claims of Burrell Webb, Mary Stevenson, Margaret Fishback Powers, and Carolyn Joyce Carty. Later that twelvemonth, The Washington Post, covering a lawsuit betwixt the claims of Stevenson, Powers and Carty, said that "At least a dozen people" had claimed credit for the verse form.^[ii]

The three authors who take near strenuously promoted their authorship are Margaret Powers (née Fishback), Carolyn Carty, and Mary Stevenson. Powers says she wrote the poem on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, in mid-October, 1964.^[3] Powers is among the contenders who have resorted to litigation in hopes of establishing a claim. She is occasionally confused with American writer Margaret Fishback. Powers published an autobiography in 1993.^[iii]

Carolyn Carty also claims to take written the poem in 1963 when she was 6 years old based on an earlier piece of work by her great-great aunt, a Sunday school teacher. She is known to be a hostile contender of the "Footprints" poem and declines to be interviewed about it, although she writes letters to those who write about the poem online.^[i] A collection of poetry past Carty with a claim to authorship of "Footprints" was published in 2004.^[iv]

Mary Stevenson is also a purported author of the verse form circa 1936.^{[v] [6]} A Stevenson biography was published in 1995.^[vii]

Popular use of phrase [edit]

Before its appearance in the 1970s, the phrase "footprints in the sand" occurred in other works. The almost dominant usage in prose is in the context of fictional or nonfiction adventure or mystery stories or articles. Prominent fiction includes Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe and Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story Foot-prints on the Ocean-shore published in the Autonomous Review.^[8] Hawthorne published the story again in Twice-Told Tales and it has been reprinted many times since. A line in the story reads, "Thus, by tracking our human foot-prints in the sand, we track our ain nature in its wayward grade, and steal a glance upon information technology, when it never dreams of being so observed. Such glances e'er make us wiser."^[9] Non-fiction includes the 1926 post-kidnapping discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson in the northern Mexican desert.^[10]

In the two centuries before 1980, when "Footprints" entered pop American culture, many books, articles, and sermons appeared with "Fooprints in the Sand" equally a title. Some of them concerned the lives of Christian missionaries. Footprints and Living Songs is an 1883 biography of hymn-author Frances Ridley Havergal.^[11] In 1839, "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow independent the lines:^[12]

Lives of smashing men all remind usa

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, go out behind united states

Footprints on the sands of fourth dimension.

Inside a decade, the terminal phrase of the poem was beingness used in public discourse without attribution, apparently on the assumption that any literate reader would know its origin. In some usages "of fourth dimension" disappeared; afterward, "on" seems to become "in". "The Object of a Life" (1876) by George Whyte-Melville includes the lines:

To tell of the slap-up example, the Human of compassion and woe;

Of footprints left behind Him, in the earthly path He trod,

And how the lowest may find Him, who straitly walk with God

was published in the widely read (and plagiarized) Temple Bar.^[thirteen] The lines hither are strikingly similar in many respects to those seen in contemporaneous hymn lyrics and later poetry.

Biblical background [edit]

Deuteronomy 1:31 presents the concept of "God bearing yous". The 1609 Douay-Rheims Bible Old Testament translation from Latin into English language uses the wording, "And in the wilderness (equally 1000 hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to conduct his piffling son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place." In 1971, the New American Standard Bible used the language "and in the wilderness where you lot saw how the LORD your God carried you". Nearly identical diction is used in other belatedly 20th century translations, including the New International Version of 1978.

Possible 19th century origins [edit]

May Riley Smith'south poem "If", published without attribution in the Indianapolis Journal in 1869,^{[14] [15]} includes a stanza that describes God's footprints in the sand next to a boy'due south:

If I could know those little feet were shod in sandals wrought of lite in meliorate lands,

And that the human foot-prints of a tender God ran adjacent with his, in golden sands,

I could bow cheerfully, and kiss the rod, since Benny was in wiser, safer easily.

June Hadden Hobbs suggested that the origin of the modern "Footprints" is in Mary B. C. Slade's 1871 hymn "Footsteps of Jesus"^{[16] [17]} as "almost surely the source of the notion that Jesus's footprints have narrative significance that influences the way believers acquit their life stories...it allows Jesus and a believer to inhabit the same infinite at the same fourth dimension...Jesus travels the path of the believer, instead of the other way around."^[16]

A similar argument could be made for Footprints of Jesus by L. B. Thorpe as published in the 1878 The International Lesson Hymnal.^[xviii]

Aviv suggests that the source of the modern "Footprints" allegory is the opening paragraph of Charles Haddon Spurgeon'south 1880 sermon "The Teaching of the Sons of God".^[19] He wrote:

"And did you ever walk out upon that lonely desert isle upon which you were wrecked, and say, 'I am solitary, — alone, — lone, — nobody was always here earlier me'? And did you suddenly pull up short as you noticed, in the sand, the footprints of a man? I remember correct well passing through that experience; and when I looked, lo! it was non just the footprints of a man that I saw, but I thought I knew whose feet had left those imprints; they were the marks of One who had been crucified, for at that place was the print of the nails. Then I thought to myself, 'If he has been hither, it is a desert island no longer.'"

In 1883, an American encyclopedia of hymns past female writers included Jetty Vogel, an English language poet. Vogel's "At the Portal" follows someone looking at their footprints as they deviate from the proper path. Vogel'due south hymn has an angel'southward footsteps just lacks the "I carried you" of the modern "Footprints".^[20]

In 1892, the Evening Star ran a brusk story "Footprints in the Sand" written by Flora Haines Loughead for the Star.^[21] The piece of work uses a metaphor for Christ, of a male parent following footprints in the sand of some other's kid headed for danger, as he wonders, "Why was it that there was nowhere whatever sign of a larger footprint to guide the little babyish anxiety?"

Possible 20th century origins [edit]

In 1918, Mormon publication The Children'due south Friend re-published the Loughead piece (credited, but misspelled "Laughead"), ensuring a wider distribution in the western states.^[22] Chicago surface area poet Lucille Veneklasen frequently submitted poems to the Chicago Tribune in the 1940s and 1950s; one entitled "Footprints" was published in the Tribune in tardily 1958:^[23]

I walked the road to sorrow—a road so night with care, so solitary, I was certain that no one else was there.

But suddenly around me were beams of calorie-free, stretched broad; and then I saw that someone was walking past my side.

And when I turned to observe this route which I had trod, I saw ii sets of footprints—My ain... and those of God.

Veneklasen's poem appeared occasionally in newspaper obituaries, unremarkably lacking attribution, and ofttimes with the death substituted for "I".

In 1963 and 1964, the Aiken Standard and Review in South Carolina ran a poem by frequent contributor M. 50. Sullivan titled "Footprints". This was a bit of romantic poetry that moves from sadness at "alone footprints in the sand" to close with "our footprints in the sand".^[24]

Early documentable history [edit]

The earliest known formally dated publications of any variants of the poem are from 1978, with three different descriptions of the person and also the setting. The first to appear in July 1978, in a small Iowa town newspaper, is a very concise (six-sentence) version featuring an "elderly homo" and "rocky roads".^[25] There is no attribution for this piece, and this version does not seem to accept appeared in whatever other publication.

An elderly man, who had lived his life and left this world to go and meet his Maker asked the Lord a question.

"As I'k looking down on the paths I've trod, I run across two sets of footprints on the easy paths.

But down the rocky roads I come across only 1 set of footprints.

"Tell me, Lord, why did you lot let me get down all those hard paths lonely?"

The Lord smiled and simply replied, "Oh, my son, you've got that all wrong!

I carried you over those difficult paths."

The 2nd and most complete early appearance was in a September 1978 issue of Evangel, a semi-monthly Church of God publication.^[26] This version is similar to the "Carty" version but is credited to "Author Unknown--(Submitted by Baton Walker)". A third version appeared in October 1978, in two California papers, starting time in Oakland^[27] and twelve days later in Shafter,^[28] with a "immature adult female" and a "sandy pathway" in a "desert wilderness". This version does not appear to have re-emerged later.

[A] young woman who was going through hard times ... began to pray to God for aid.

... [South]uddenly in her mind's heart she saw ii sets of footprints side by side on a sandy pathway.

Immediately her spirits lifted because she interpreted this to mean that God was with her and was walking abreast her.

So the motion-picture show inverse. She at present saw the footprints located in a vast desert wilderness, and instead of two sets of footprints, at that place ::was merely 1.

Why was God no longer abreast her? As despair settled back over her, she began to cry.

Then the inner vocalisation of God softly spoke and said, "I take non left you. The 1 ready of footprints is mine.

You come across, I am carrying you through the wilderness."

In 1979, additional appearances occurred: two in pocket-sized Louisiana and Mississippi newspapers, one in a Catholic periodical, ii in widely syndicated newspapers columns, one on a nationwide radio program and reprinted by two small papers, and one in a prominent evangelist'south biography. In January 1979, the Opelousas, Louisiana, Daily World published a near exact Carty version merely with a "My honey child" mutation at the end, and no attribution.^[29]

In March, the Winona Times presented a Powers-similar version with "a sure elderly man ... walking forth a sea shore" where "Out of the waves shot rays of light, mystic and wonderful that played across the sky illuminating scenes from his life". He was "sorely troubled and his life had been at its saddest and everyman ebb."^[30]

The March 1979 issue of Liguorian, a monthly publication of the Catholic Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, published a complete, nearly unmodified first-person version following Carty, merely attributed to "Author Unknown". ^[31]

Christian televangelist and columnist Robert Schuller noted in his column that a reader had sent him a story; it is unclear whether the version presented in the column—which casts a "pilgrim" every bit the human character—was used verbatim or was rewritten by Schuller: this particular version has non been re-published subsequently the column's original nationwide publication during March–August, 1979.^[32]

[A] pilgrim arrived in heaven and God said to him, "Would you like to run across where yous've come from?"

When the pilgrim responded that he would, God unfolded the story of his whole life and he saw footprints from the cradle to the grave.

Only in that location were non merely the footprints of the pilgrim, only some other set up of prints alongside.

The pilgrim said, "I see my footprints, but whose are those?"

And the Lord said, "Those are My footprints. I was with yous all the time."

So they came to a dark, discouraging valley and the pilgrim said, "I see only i set of footprints through that valley.

I was so discouraged. You were not there with me. It was just as I thought–I was so all lonely!"

So the Lord said, "Oh, but I was in that location. I was with you lot the whole fourth dimension.

Y'all see, those are MY footprints. I carried yous all through that valley."

In April 1979, the Havre Daily News in Montana published a variant of the Carty version told in first person with slightly unlike punctuation and a "never, never" alteration to lucifer the "precious, precious child" of the previous sentence. The author of the local weekly column noted that it had been supplied by a friend who had "first heard [information technology] when Paul Harvey quoted it on his radio program."^[33] Information technology is unknown whether the listener had copied it downwards from retention or received a written version from Mr. Harvey or elsewhere. No recordings or transcriptions of Mr. Harvey's daily radio news and commentary broadcasts are known to accept survived. A verbatim copy of the Havre instance ran in a pocket-sized, inmate-produced newsletter published by the Napa Country Infirmary, in July 1979.^[34]

Advice columnist Ann Landers^[35] published an verbal re-create of the Stevenson version in July 1979. The cavalcade indicates that the contributor who provided the work, claims to have carried a tattered copy around "for years" with no farther explanation of its publication source. She printed the piece again in late February 1982 in response to reader demand and noted that it had as well appeared in Reader's Assimilate.^[36] The 1982 republication added a novel phrase "I would never desert you".

Christian televangelist Jerry Falwell'south 1979 biography, Jerry Falwell: Aflame for God, opens a chapter with an expanded "a man dreamed" version.^[37]

Humorist and columnist Erma Bombeck^[38] published a condensed version of Stevenson's variant in July 1980.

During the 1980 U.s. presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan used a variant of "Footprints", with himself as the human being, as the closing lines in an August speech to evangelical leaders in Dallas, Texas.^[39] President Reagan used "Footprints" again in a voice communication at the almanac National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 1981.^[40] These versions announced to be Stevenson paraphrases.

Advice columnist Dear Abby ran a Carty version attributed to "Author Unknown" in late 1981.^[41]

Influence [edit]

An artistic rendering of the scene the poetry inspires

In 1983, Cristy Lane released a country gospel vocal based on the poem called "Footprints in the Sand". The song peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard Country nautical chart and No. xxx on the U.Southward. Christian chart.^[42]

The 1983 television pic Choices of the Heart closes with lead character Jean Donovan reciting a condensed version of Powers/Carty.^[43]

In 1984, Ken Dark-brown published a version of the poem in rhyme and rhythm every bit opposed to the more unremarkably known free form versions popular today.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1994, English language singer Chris de Burgh included a summary of the poem as the fourth stanza in his song "Snows of New York" in the album This Way Upwardly: In my dream we walked, you and I to the shore / Leaving footprints by the sea / And when there was just one set of prints in the sand / That was when you carried me. ^[44]

Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Richard Page, and Simon Cowell wrote a vocal based on the poem, chosen "Footprints in the Sand", which was recorded past Leona Lewis.^[45] Information technology appears on Lewis's debut album Spirit. Another song inspired by the poem called "Footprints" was recorded by Dancehall/Reggae group T.O.Thou.^[46]

The poem is parodied in the One-half Man One-half Biscuit vocal "Footprints", off the 1993 anthology This Leaden Pall. In the song, the Lord explains the fact that there is only one set of footprints this way: "During your times of trial and suffering, when you see but one set of footprints, that must take been when I was appearing on . . . Junior Kick Start!"^[47]

The poem was also the inspiration and chorus for the G-Unit vocal "Footprints", from their 2003 debut album "Beg For Mercy".

The poem was used in the memorial service for Air France Flying 447 on 3 June 2009.^[48]

In 2016, a larger-than-life sculpture inspired by the verse form was installed at Pippen Memorial Park in Carthage, Texas.^[49]

See also [edit]

• Third Man factor
• Parable of the drowning human, another story nigh God and his relationship with humanity often retold amid modern Christians

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Aviv, Rachel (March 19, 2008). "Enter Sandman: Who wrote footprints?". Poesy Foundation. Retrieved 2008-08-05 .
2. ^ Stuever, Hank (June 1, 2008). "Search to Divine Authorship Leads 'Footprints' to Court". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2017-11-05 .
3. ^ ^{a b} Powers, Margaret Fishback (2012). Footprints: The True Story Behind the Poem That Inspired Millions. HarperCollins. p. 252. ISBN978-1-44341-233-ix.
4. ^ Carty, Carolyn Joyce; Scharring-Hausen, Robert Louis; Scharring-Hausen, Ella H. (2004). Footprints in the Sand: 1 Nighttime a Man Had a Dream. Authorhouse. p. 77. ISBN1418448532.
5. ^ Colombo, Carmen. "Footprints in the Sand". Wowzone . Retrieved 2016-09-nineteen .
6. ^ Colombo, Carmen. "Footprints in the Sand - The Full Story". Wowzone . Retrieved 2016-09-xix .
7. ^ Giorgio, Gail (1995). Footprints in the Sand: The Life Story of Mary Stevenson, Author of the Immortal Poem. Gilded Leafage Printing. p. 133. ISBNane-882723-24-4.
8. ^ "The United States Magazine and Autonomous Review". Washington, D.C.: John L. O'Sullivan. 1838. Retrieved 2017-12-25 .
9. ^ "Twice-Told Tales". Boston, Massachusetts: James Munroe. 1842. Retrieved 2017-12-25 .
10. ^ "Sunday Sermons [at] Angelus Temple". The Los Angeles Times. June thirteen, 1942.
11. ^ Charles Bullock (1883). Footprints and Living Songs. London, United Kingdom: "Dwelling house Words" Publishing Office. ISBN9781166936822.
12. ^ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1839). Voices of the Night. Cambridge: John Owen. p. 144.
13. ^ Whyte-Melville, George John (September–December 1876). "The Object of a Life". Temple Bar. London, United Kingdom: William Clowes and Sons. p. 514. Retrieved 2017-12-26 .
14. ^ Smith, May Riley (May i, 1869). "If". The Indianapolis Journal. Retrieved 2017-11-13 .
15. ^ Sargent, Epes (1882). Harper's Cyclopedia of British and American Poetry. Harper.
16. ^ ^{a b} Hobbs, June Hadden (1997). I Sing for I Cannot Be Silent: The Feminization of American Hymnody, 1870–1920. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press. p. 123. ISBN9780822939900.
17. ^ Slade, M.B.C. "Footsteps of Jesus". Hymnary.org . Retrieved 9 Nov 2017.
18. ^ Cook, David C. (1878). The International Lesson Hymnal. Chicago: David C. Cook. p. 104. Retrieved 2017-12-18 .
19. ^ Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (x June 1880). The Pedagogy of the Sons of God (PDF). Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
20. ^ Smith, Eva Munson. "Woman in Sacred Vocal". HathiTrust. Chicago: Standard Publishing Co. p. 795. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
21. ^ Loughead, Flora Haines (Jan 2, 1892). "Footprints in the Sand". Washington, D.C.: The Evening Star. p. 8. Retrieved 2017-11-28 .
22. ^ Laughead, Flora Haines (1918). "Footprints in the Sand". The Children's Friend. Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah: Deseret News. pp. 325–8. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
23. ^ Veneklasen, Lucille (November 29, 1958). "Footprints". The Chicago Tribune. p. 25. Retrieved 2017-xi-13 .
24. ^ Sullivan, M. 50. (February 14, 1963). "Footprints". Aiken Standard and Review. p. 6. Retrieved 2017-12-21 .
25. ^ "Nutrient for thought". Fairfield Ledger. Fairfield, Iowa. July 31, 1978. Retrieved September xi, 2017.
26. ^ "Footprints in the Sand". Church building of God Evangel. Vol. 68, no. 14. Cleveland, Tennessee. September 25, 1978. p. 27.
27. ^ "Is something bothering you lot?". Oakland Post. Oakland, California. Oct half dozen, 1978. Retrieved Dec 4, 2017.
28. ^ "Invitee Pulpit: Going through the difficult times". Shafter Press. Shafter, California. October 18, 1978. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
29. ^ unattributed (January 28, 1979). "Just think nearly this..." Daily Earth. Opelousas, Louisiana. Retrieved Nov 19, 2017.
30. ^ unattributed (March 22, 1979). "A Dream of Things". The Winona Times. Winona, Mississippi. Retrieved Dec 20, 2017.
31. ^ Author Unknown (March 1979). "One night I had a dream". Liguorian. Vol. 67, no. 3. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications. p. 31.
32. ^ Robert Schuller (March thirty, 1979). "Failure is backing away". Greenville Daily Advocate. Greenville, South Carolina. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
33. ^ Harold Hamon (April 25, 1979). "This week at Big Sky Youth Ranch". Havre Daily News. Havre, Montana. Retrieved Dec 3, 2017.
34. ^ "Footprints". Imola News. Napa, California: Napa Land Hospital. July–August 1979.
35. ^ Landers, Ann (July 15, 1979). "Verse gives lift during solitary times". Springfield Leader and Press. Springfield, Missouri. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
36. ^ "Points to Ponder". The Reader's Digest. Chappaqua, New York: Reader'south Digest. February 1980. p. 131.
37. ^ Strober, Gerald (1979). Jerry Falwell: Aglow for God. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc. pp. 53–54.
38. ^ Bombeck, Erma (July xix, 1980). "Mothers of handicapped voice their opinions". Santa Atomic number 26 New Mexican. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
39. ^ Fitzpatrick, Tom (August 24, 1980). "Reagan reveals vulnerability among hellfire of evangelists' convention". Arizona Democracy. Phoenix, Arizona. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
40. ^ Reagan, Ronald (March 1982). Public papers of the presidents of the Usa. Washington, D.C.: Federal Register Division, National Athenaeum and Records Service, General Services Assistants. p. 77.
41. ^ Van Buren, Abigail (November 23, 1981). "Footprints in the Sand". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
42. ^ "Cristy Lane chart". AllMusic . Retrieved 12 August 2010.
43. ^ Henniger, Paul (1984-02-05). "Tv set Q&A". Shreveport, Louisiana: Los Angeles Times Syndicate via Shreveport Times. Retrieved 2017-12-20 .
44. ^ "Chris de Burgh lyrics". Metro Lyrics. Archived from the original on 2013-04-02. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
45. ^ "Leona to release Sport Relief song". Virgin Media. 2008-01-31. Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2008-02-01 .
46. ^ "Footprints". Retrieved 2017-eleven-05 .
47. ^ "'Footprints' by Half Man Half Biscuit". The Half Human being Half Beige Lyrics Project. Chris Rand. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
48. ^ "Archbishop Of Paris Press Release". Air France. 2009-06-03. Retrieved 2013-08-21 .
49. ^ "14-Pes-Tall Carry-Me Jesus". Roadside America. Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins. Retrieved Dec 1, 2017.

External links [edit]

• Who wrote "Footprints"? Archived

stoutatimenswo76.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem)

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