Hymn Texts to a Welsh Meter - 1

About the Book

Reading that the 2.88.888. hymn meter is considered powerful in Welsh hymnody - but that it is not used in English - I became curious. I tried the pattern out even though I initially could find no hymn tunes to that meter; indeed, it has not been used in English as my glance at my hymnals and online showed. So, I took my experience of hymn meters and the way this one was expressed and let the resonance begin to flow. It seemed to me that the meter did work in English, that it provided a powerful pattern and an inviting schema to express my own religious instincts and experience. I found a variety of stimuli for the texts, taken from scripture and other sources, put in my own medium and conveyed in the energies of the 2.88.888. hymn meter. Tunes were eventually discovered in a Welsh language hymnal, the 1929 hymnal of the Welsh Methodists.

About the Author

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) now living in a city on the prairies of Illinois. Over those years I often used my skills in writing to enhance what I was doing in ministry. Among the genres I stumbled into were poetry, stories, liturgical materials, devotional materials and hymn texts. These usually began with some observation or suggestion that piqued my curiosity, wondering if I could do that, then discovering that not only could I do it but that the product proved to be useful. In the most recent case, the note in a book that the 2.88.888. hymn meter pattern was considered powerful in Welsh hymnody but that it is not used in English made me wonder. So I tried it out for a few samples, found it intriguing and inviting. and, indeed , powerful. True to my pattern, I kept going so long as the form served my purposes. These continue to come on occasion as I live a quiet life with my wife of fifty three years, a pair of dogs and several cats.