Eliza R. Snow Wrote 'O My Father' — A Poem That Revealed the Doctrine of a Heavenly Mother

Eliza Roxey Snow (1804–1887) was living in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1843 — having already been sealed as a plural wife to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1842 — when she wrote what would become one of the most theologically significant poems in LDS history.

Originally titled 'My Father in Heaven,' the poem was later renamed 'O My Father' after its first line. It was published in the *Times and Seasons* in 1845 and later included in the LDS hymnbook, where it remains today as Hymn #292.

The poem contains the lines:

'In the heavens are parents single?

No; the thought makes reason stare!

Truth is reason; truth eternal

Tells me I've a mother there.'

This was the first published articulation of the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother — a doctrine Joseph Smith had taught privately but which had not been formally set forth. Through Eliza's poetic gift, inspired by years of prayer, grief over losing loved ones, and her intimate access to the Prophet's teachings, this doctrine entered the consciousness of the entire Church.

In a vision described in the poem, Eliza wrote of seeing Christ as leading his people to the city of God — of remembering a pre-mortal life, of a divine Father and a divine Mother, and of a return to celestial glory. The poem is a theological treatise in verse, born of revelation and confirmed by generations of Church leaders.

Brigham Young later confirmed the doctrine publicly. Apostles have quoted and affirmed it across the generations. Today it stands as one of the most distinctive and comforting doctrines of the Restoration — the knowledge that we have a Heavenly Mother as well as a Heavenly Father — and it entered the world through Eliza Snow's gift of literary inspiration.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in 1.14 Eliza R. Snow, “My Father in Heaven,” October 1845, The Church Historian’s Press):

Snow, who served as secretary of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo from 1842 to 1844 and married Joseph Smith on June 29, 1842, completed the following poem, initially titled “My Father in Heaven,” a little over a year after the death of her husband and within a short time after the death of her father, Oliver Snow. “My Father in Heaven” was the last poem Snow wrote in Nauvoo; it appeared in the November 15, 1845, issue of the Times and Seasons, with the subscript “City of Joseph, Oct. 1845.” Snow’s poem also speaks of the Latter-day Saint belief in Mother in Heaven. The extant writings and discourses of Joseph Smith include no mention of a Mother in Heaven, but later accounts indicate that he taught this doctrine to Snow and others in private.