Minnie Louise Haskins – Poet of The Gate of the Year
Minnie Louise Haskins (12 May 1875 – 3 February 1957) was a British poet, educated in sociology, and an American lecturer at the London School of Economics. She taught Sunday school and became a missionary to India. In 1912, Haskins published a small volume of poetry, The Desert, to raise funds for her mission. This volume included the poem God Knows (1908). She added a preamble which evolved into the poem that today is known as The Gate of the Year.
King George read the opening lines of The Gate of the Year in his Christmas message of 1939, as the country was in the early stages of World War II. After the King’s death, the Queen Mother had the poem engraved on bronze plaques at the entrance to the George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, and in
a window at the Queen’s Chapel at the Savoy in London. The full poem was also read and printed in the Order of Service for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 2002.
The earliest musical setting of The Gate of the Year was by Margaret Florence Spencer Palmer (1900 – 1987) in 1940 (a year following the King’s speech quoting the same poem) for solo voice and organ. A later SATB setting was written by Richard Shepherd (1949-2021). The Canticle Singers will perform a setting by Eleanor Daley (2004).