English Hymns Their Authors And History

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D.H. Lawrence, writing of the poems that had meant most to him, said that they were `still not woven so deep in me as the rather banal Nonconformist hymns that penetrated through and through my childhood'. It is not easy to account for this, and most writing about hymns has not helped because it has concentrated on their content and function in worship and liturgy. In the present book the author tries to account for feelings like Lawrence's by examining the hymn form and its progress through the centuries from the Reformation to the present day. He begins by discussing the status of a hymn text and relates it to the demands made upon it by the needs of singing. A chronological study then traces the development of the English hymn, from the metrical psalms of the Reformation, through the seventeenth century and Isaac Watts to the Wesleys, Cowper, Toplady, and others, and then to the great flood of hymn writing that occurred during the Victorian period, together with the great success of Hymns Ancient and Modern. There are chapters on American hymnody and women's hymn writing, and sections on gospel hymns and the translation of German hymnody. A final chapter takes the story into the twentieth century, with a brief postscript on the revival of hymn writing since 1960.

Excerpt from English Hymns: Their Authors and History I have written this Preface, in waking and dreaming moments, a good many times. It is "borne in upon me" - as the Quakers say - that the Courteous Reader and I must make each other's acquaintance in the first person singular before we are separated by the editorial "We." I would not have him "mislike me for my complexion," or fancy that, because this is a somewhat elaborate - and, I hope, somewhat accurate - treatise on the Authors and History of English Hymns, it must therefore be dry reading and useless to all except the musty grubbers among old hymn-books. Nor would I have him - or her, for I know as many women who love hymns as I do men! - think me capable of imposing on his credulity with every sort of ill-grounded or sentimental tradition concerning the origin or the use of these Hymns. The size of the present volume shows what has been omitted as well as included. And as this is in no sense either a work of fiction or of dead statistics, I have confined myself to the truth as I found it, and have mainly restrained a desire to indulge in the Comparison of Texts and the History of Alterations. I suppose I might add, too, that I have only plucked a few flowers from the outer limits of that great garden of Christian Biography wherein grow Solomon's rose, Christ's lily, Chaucer's daisy, and Robert Robinson's saffron-crocus. It was when I was busy with the Latin Hymns that this work was peremptorily forced upon me by the exigencies of the case. Large as it was, I looked upon it only as the adytum or vestibule to that cathedral of ancient praise. But I soon found that English Hymnology afforded a very fruitful field, for, as a rule, in the immensity of material each editor has perforce taken a certain direction and dug his galleries and shafts to correspond. Such a thing as one General Guide to the whole subject of the Hymns themselves was not to be had. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Why do people sing hymns? Are hymns poetry? What makes a good hymn? The author discusses the nature of hymns and their particular appeal, examines the English hymn as a literary form, and systematically describes its development through four centuries, from the Reformation to the mid-twentieth century.

Excerpt from English Hymns: Their Authors and History I have written this Preface, in waking and dreaming moments, a good many times. It is borne in upon me - as the Quakers say - that the Courteous Reader and I must make each other's acquaintance in the first person singular before we are separated by the editorial We.' I would not have him mislike me for my complexion, or fancy that, because this is a somewhat elaborate - and, I hope, somewhat accurate - treatise on the Authors and History of Eng lish Hymns, it must therefore be dry reading and useless to all except the musty grubbers among old hymn - books. Nor would I have him - or her, for I know as many women who love hymns as I do men -think me capable of imposing on his credulity with every sort Of ill-grounded or sentimental tradition concerning the origin or the use of these Hymns. The size of the present volume shows what has been omitted as well as in cluded. And as this is in no sense either a work of fiction or of dead statistics, I-have confined myself to the truth as I found it, and have mainly restrained a desire to indulge in the Comparison of Texts and the History of Alterations. I suppose I might add, too, that I have only plucked a few flowers from the outer limits of that great garden of Christian Biography wherein grow Solomon's rose, Christ's lily, Chaucer's daisy, and Robert Robinson's saffron-crocus. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.