Hymn meter

Hymn meter, in Western liturgy and literature, is the general metrical scheme in which hymns are recited or sung. Three metrical schemes are generally recognized, all (usually) in four-line stanzas rhyming a-b-c-b (or a-b-a-b).[1]

English minister and hymn writer Isaac Watts, who wrote hundreds of hymns and was instrumental in the widespread use of hymns in public worship in England, is credited with popularizing and formalizing these meters, which were based on English folk poems, particularly ballads.[1]

Common metre

Common metre has alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter organized in four-line stanzas.[1] This is also called ballad meter, since many English ballads employ this structure.[2]

Examples

"Amazing Grace":

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.

Long metre

In long metre, stanzas consist of lines of iambic tetrameter.[1]

Examples

"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross":

When I survey the wond'rous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory dy'd,
My richest Gain I count but Loss,
And pour Contempt on all my Pride.[3]

Short metre

Short meter has two lines of iambic trimeter, a line of iambic tetrameter, and a final line of iambic trimeter.[1]

References
  1. "Isaac Watts & Emily Dickinson: Inherited Meter". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  2. Dugaw, D. (2016). "Ballad meter". In Greene, Roland; Cushman, Stephen (eds.). The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms (3 ed.). Princeton UP. pp. 25–26. ISBN 9781400880645.
  3. "Long metre". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
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