English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth CenturyHistorians of the English congregational hymn, focusing on its literary or theological aspects, have usually found the genre out of step with the rationalist era that produced it. This book takes a more balanced approach to the work of four writers and concludes that only eighteenth-century Britain, with its understanding of public verse, common truth, and the utility of poetry, could have invented the English hymn as we know it. The early hymns sought to inspire, teach, stir, and entertain congregations. The essential purpose shifted slightly in line with each poet's setting and in accord with the poetic thought of his day. For Isaac Watts's Independents, powerful traditional imagery was appropriate. Charles Wesley's enthusiasm proceeded from and served the spirit of the revival. John Newton's prophetic vision particularly suited the impoverished community at Olney. William Cowper's masterful handling of formal conventions and his idiosyncratic personal hymns reflect his poetic, rather than clerical, vocation. Despite such temporal variations, the great poetry by each man displays themes of general Christian relevance, suggesting common experience, showing normative features of the genre, and bearing a complex and intriguing relationship to secular literature. |
From inside the book
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... poetry, easily recognized by the metrical limits within which the hymn writer labored and by the short lines and stanzaic repetition required of congregational song. Despite such instant formal recognizability of hymns as hymns, the ...
... poet is commonplace and his expression is of general usefulness to other Christians, the resulting poem is not suitable for ... poetry, which takes the expression of private or collective feeling as only one of its purposes. It is not ...
... poet, unhallowed by biblical authority, was a startling development in the English tradition. Church of England ... poetry and their place in literary tradition. The study of hymns also promises to yield a rich harvest to the ...
... poetry, as hymns may be, is frequently an excellent index to the taste of a given period as well as to a generally accepted world view of an age. In the hymns of Watts, written in the early part of the century, for example, the peaceful ...
... poetry of Herbert, The Rape of the Lock and Gulliver's Travels. We have suggested that why poets write hymns, what principles they follow and within what limits they work, the literary taste of poet and singer alike, the relationship of ...
Contents
Self Sense the Revival | |
John Newton Olney Prophet | |
Exemplary Tradition the Loss of Control | |
Conclusion | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century Madeleine Forell Marshall,Janet Todd Limited preview - 1982 |
English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century Madeleine Forrell Marshall,Janet M. Todd No preview available - 2014 |