Poetic Aspects Of Hymnody

Hymns are essentially poems set to music. The following article describes the poetic qualities of hymn texts, defines several of the technical terms used to categorize hymns texts, and then discusses how hymn tunes need to be sensitive to the poetic qualities of the text. Studying the examples provided in this article will help the reader to better understand and use hymns for congregational singing. Meter For many people looking through a hymnal, the use of such letters as SM, CM, LM, CMD and strange numbers such as 77. 77. , 87. 87. D, and 14 14. 4 7 8. are complete mysteries or at best intriguing puzzles. But for anyone seriously concerned with writing hymn texts or setting them to music, they are very important, for they are related to the thoughts and means of expression which are chosen consciously or unconsciously. Artists usually do things more by instinct than by cerebral machination; yet there is plenty of historical evidence to indicate that there are certain poetical r…