Poetic Form
Hymn
A song or poem of praise, typically addressed to a god or divine power.
MeterCommon meterMost often 8, 6, 8, 6 syllables
RhymeABAB or ABCBEasy to sing
StanzasAll the sameOne tune fits every verse
SubjectPraiseUsually of the divine
About the Hymn
A hymn is a poem of religious praise, traditionally sung in communal worship. The form joins lyric address to the divine with the musical regularity needed for congregational singing.
Structure
Many English hymns use common meter (alternating lines of 8 and 6 syllables, ABAB or ABCB), long meter (four lines of 8 syllables), or short meter (6-6-8-6). Stanzas are uniform in length and meter so that one melody serves the whole hymn.
One stanza of common meter, the most used hymn pattern; every stanza repeats it so one melody serves the whole hymn.
18 syllables
26 syllables
38 syllables
46 syllables
A Short History
- AntiquityVedic and Homeric hymns praise the gods.
- 1707Isaac Watts publishes Hymns and Spiritual Songs.
- 1739Charles Wesley writes the hymn later known as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
- 1779John Newton's Amazing Grace appears in print.
- TodaySung in worship worldwide, and echoed in Dickinson's verse.
Famous Hymns
- 01"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"Charles Wesley
- 02"Amazing Grace"John Newton
- 03"Because I could not stop for Death" (in common meter)Emily Dickinson
Questions About the Hymn
The things people ask most, answered in a sentence or two.
Common meter is a four-line stanza with lines of 8, 6, 8 and 6 syllables. It is the pattern of "Amazing Grace" and of many of Emily Dickinson's poems.
Psalms are the 150 poems of the Bible's Book of Psalms. A hymn is any song or poem of religious praise, and many hymns are new poems or loose versions of psalms.
So that one melody can be sung to every verse. That is why hymns keep the same meter from start to finish.