Be prepared to discuss
them with reference to formal schemes, poetic devices, and poets.
Read the following hymns as poetry.Be prepared to discuss
them with reference to formal schemes, poetic devices, and poets.
I.Formal Schemes
a.#248--"God, Our Father, We Adore Thee"
Trinitarian with litany.
b.#247--"Come, Thou Almighty King"
Trinitarian.
c.#94 "Angels, From the Realms of Glory
Itemization with litany.
d.#150--"Go to Dark Gethsemane"
Chronological developmental
e.#161--"Crown Him with Many Crowns"
Itemization with some Hegelian dialectic.
II.Poetic Devices
a.#88 "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
Anaphora is used in stanzas 2 and 3; the whole song is a climax.
b.#216--"O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
Hyperbole, tautology, anadiplosis
c.#589--"Ye Servants of God"
Personification (st.2), hyperbole, some tautology
d.#180--"Jesus, Lover of My Soul"
Metaphor, some anaphora (st.1: "while;" st.2: "all"), anadiplosis
e.#123--"Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me"
Some metaphor; antithesis
III.Poets
a.#73 "God Moves in Mysterious Ways"
William Cowper (Cooper), 1773. Published in John Newton's Twenty-six Letters on Religious Subjects: to which are added Hymns (London, 1774) under "Light Shining Out of Darkness;" in Olney Hymns, Book 3, Newton acknowledges Cowper's authorship. Appears first in Southern Baptist hymnody in The Baptist Psalmody (Charleston, 1850, #50).
b.#28 "Let All
the World in Every Corner Sing"
George Herbert's 2-stanza poem, part of his The Temple (Cambridge, p. 45), was first published in 1933 (posthumously). One of two in the book originally titled "Antiphon." Reflects medieval antiphon device with beginning, ending, and separating stanzas with "Let all the world in every corner sing, ÔMy God and King.'" Apparently Herbert meant for this poem to be sung (title and format). Adapted for hymn as early as 1697, included (altered) in Select Hymns taken out of Mr. Herbert's Temple and turn'd into the common Meeter to be Sung in the Tunes ordinarily us'd in Churches (London, 1697, #12).
c.#480--"Immortal Love, Forever Full"
By Walter Chalmers Smith, based on 1 Timothy 1:17.Published first in his Hymns of Christ and Christian Life in 6, 4-line stanzas. W. Garrett Horder (English Baptist editor) got Smith to make some changes and include it in Congregational Hymns (London, 1884) and Worship Song (1905). First U.S. appearance in Hymnal, Amore Dei (Boston, 1890). This version uses original first three stanzs; fourth is opening couplets of stanzas 4 and 5.
d.#67 "Come, Ye Disconsolate"
St.1, 2 by Thomas Moore as "Relief in Prayer" (Sacred Songs, 1816); Thomas Hastings's revisions included in his and Lowell Mason's Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (Boston, 1831). Changes in st.1, line 2;, st.2, lines 2, 3; new 3rd stanza. Appeared in The Baptist Psalmody, #348.
e.#267--"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"
Taken from last 6 of John Greenleaf Whittier's 17-stanza poem, "The Brewing of Soma." First published in April, 1872 issue of Atlantic Monthly. It is about Whittier's concept of true worship (Quaker worship vs. revivalist emotionalism). Garrett Horder extracted st.12, 14-17 for Worship Song (1884); present version uses Horder's st.1, 4, 5, 2. First included in New Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, 1926, #63).
f.#470--"Once to Every Man and Nation"
Garrett Horder selected, rearranged, substituted, and edited the lines of James Russell Lowell's "The Present Crisis" (a protest against the war with Mexico, which he thought was unjust and would expand slavery). Horder published it in his Hymns, Supplemental to existing collections (1896) and Worship Song (1905). First appeared in Southern Baptist collection in Baptist Hymnal (Nashvill, 1956).
g.#385--"In
Christ There Is No East or West"
John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerly?) wrote this in 1908 for London Missionary Society's exhibition "The Orient in London." Poem entitled "Ne East or West." First published as separate poem in Oxenham's Bees in Amber (London, 1913), with obvious links to Luke 13:29, John 13:35, Gal. 3:28. First appeared in Southern Baptist collection in Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, 1956, #443).