Phosphorus

"Phosphorus" is a collaborative effort between William Crouch (1821-1899) and I. William Crouch is my 4th great grandfather on my mothers side. I was looking through some old family history materials we had at my parents house and came across this poem entitled "The Flame of Love." This is how the poem appears in our history: The Flame of Love by William Crouch (Written in a dark room with phosphorus) Start not fair maid at this strange sight The love that you inspire Induces me my thoughts to write In characters of fire. In us let genuine virture shine In fortune's darkest hour And love's pure flame forever burn To cheer, but not devour Long may I live to love you, and Rejoice to call you mine And you have cause to bless the hand That wrote these blessing lines. And may the love of God in us Be ever shed abroad That we may love as angels love Love each, and each love God. Quench hurtful lust O, God, I pray Base passions far remove Of nature's fires let none prevail But the pure flame of Love This is a synopsis of his life story: William Crouch Born 12 Oct. 1821 in Brede Sussex England Died 17 November 1899 in Salt Lake City Utah. Married to Caroline Baker Crouch. Married 7 June 1850 Sussex County, Englad Endowed 8 March 1875 Endowment House, Salt Lake City He joined the military at age 20. He had met and fallen in love with Caroline. They had had a falling out and it was during this time of despondency that he joined the military. He enjoyed the duties and discipline. They patched up their relationship, but he couldn't get out of the army. The only way was to buy him out. To do this Caroline did housework and saved her wages. After working for about 4 years, she had enough to buy him out, which she did. He puts it this way. "I left the army in spring of 1850 in Ireland, and returned to England and married Caroline Baker. Henceforth, we were as one, and our lives ran together. We had loved each other from early youth, had corresponded all those years and good woman that she is she saved her money and purchased my discharge. We began our married life in London. We attended the Great Exhibition of 1851. Caroline could neither read nor write before she started to work to buy William out of the army. When William wrote her she would have to get someone to read it to her and also to write back to him for her. This became so serious that the following method was resorted to...William wrote out both the alphabet, that is small and capital letters, from this she copied until she learned to write. She would spell or write out the words as they sounded to her. This method of learning to read and write proved very successful to the young sweethearts and their correspondence was their own affair, after the mastering of the arts of reading, writing and spelling. So this is how Caroline learned to read and write. Caroline's devotion to William speaks to me. This woman worked and saved money in order to buy Williams discharge from the army--she worked and saved just so she could be with him. I think the fact that Caroline learned to read and write through her correspondence with William. It's symbolic to me--through her devotion and love she learned to communicate. While the word "phosphorus" is not part of the poem, the note at the beginning of the heading made its way into the lyrics. "Phosphorus" by Trent Belnap, adapted from "The Flame of Love" by William Crouch Start not my maid at this strange sight With phosphorus candles burn I write Oh how I want you by my side Fortune's hour, this dark room ignites That we may love as angels love, they love That we may love as angels love, they love Love each, and each love God Start not my maid at this strange sight With phosphorus candles burn I write With phosphorus candles burn I write With phosphorus candles burn I write