John Lyon (poet)



John J. Lyon (4 March 1803, Glasgow – 28 November 1889) was a Scottish Latter Day Saint poet and hymn writer from Kilmarnock

The Harp of Zion (1853)
"For Speculation's visionary claim" - The Apostate
 * "I knew him, ere the roots of bitterness "Had grown to putrid cancer in his soul. "Then Revelation's light gleamed o'er his mind "In strange fantastic dreams of future bliss, "He saw the dawn, and this was quite enough


 * "But he'll ne'er wake us mair, "For Hughie is deid" - Elegy on Wee Hughie - A Pet Canary


 * "Lust is the offspring of a thousand sighs, "Intrigue, deception, and as many lies; "A strange compound of hidden, plotting ill, "To fire with rage, to torture, or to kill" -Lust


 * "Thou representative of something great, What wert thou in thine unconverted state?" - Reflections on a Banknote


 * "It’s a cauld barren blast that blaws nobody good.” - title of poem.

Songs of a Pioneer


The prairie has no solitude When music lifts her voice, The distant mountains echo loud When Mormon boys rejoice; The barren waste, the hills, and dales In rapture clap their hands Whene’er they hear in Utah’s vales Our instrumental band - “Song for a Musical Festival”

We’ll sing of humbler, happier men, Who live by daily toil— Who ply the plow-share and the spade To break the stubborn soil. - “Farmer’s Song”