Not the slightest handicap is the necessity of choosing a form of stanza that will at the same time fit the writer’s sentiment and be adapted to singable tunes known to the congregations which are to be lyrically served. This range of form is quite limited. Most of these tunes call for iambic or trochaic measure, because anapaestic or dactylic numbers lack the dignity and the impressiveness necessary for general hymns.
The form of the stanza may take the elevated, heavy “Long” Meter, the more widely expressive “Common” Meter, the sententious “Short” Meter, “Sevens and Sixes,” “Eights and Sevens,” plain “Sevens” or “Sixes,” or the more lively “Sixes and Fours” or “Sixes and Fives.”[6]
These different meters have very marked characteristics. It is really marvelous how the instinct of true hymn writers in all generations has unconsciously, or at most subconsciously, taken account of them and with practical unanimity observed them.
The Long Meter is stately and dignified. It is the fit expression of noble praise like the Long Meter Doxology, “Lord of all being, throned afar,” “From all that dwell below the skies,” “Before Jehovah’s awful throne,” or elevated sentiment like “God is the refuge of His saints,” “When I survey the wondrous cross,” and “’Tis midnight, and on Olive’s brow.” Its long, even lines, broken by no strong stops, afford a smooth, graceful expression for general truths and Christian doctrine in poetic form, such as “O Jesus, our chief cornerstone,” “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,” and “O Love! how deep, how broad, how high!”
The Common Meter is much more varied in its possibilities of expression, as its unequal lines and alternate rhymes give greater freedom. It is the prevailing meter of the old English ballad. It is really the most adaptable and pliable form of stanza open to the hymn writer, giving equal opportunity of expression to all emotions and classes of truth. It is a fit vehicle alike for the elevated praise of “All hail the power of Jesus’ name,” the majesty of “I sing th’ almighty pow’r of God,” the doctrinal statement of “There is a fountain filled with blood,” the tenderness of “Jesus, the very thought of Thee,” the vigor of “Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,” and the quiet resignation of “Father, whate’er of earthly bliss.” On account of this adaptability it has become the Common Meter in fact as well as in name. Its exclusive use in some of the collections of metrical psalms shut out the use of tunes in other meters and so led to the singing of only a few of the more popular Common Meter tunes; the result was that the congregational singing in the churches in England, Scotland, and America was nearly wrecked.
S. M. might stand for sententious meter as well as for Short Meter, as the two short lines and the long pauses at the end of each of them give it an emphatic, terse, even epigrammatic style. This may be seen in “My soul, be on thy guard,” “Welcome, sweet day of rest,” “Stand up and bless the Lord,” “Crown Him with many crowns,” and “Come, Holy Spirit, come.” John Fawcett was not happy in the selection of this meter for his otherwise very useful and precious hymn, “Blest be the tie that binds,” as the strong pause at the end of the first line in all but one of his stanzas cuts his sentences in two and makes the hymn alike difficult to read and sing. The same difficulty will be found in the reading of other hymns in this meter, the limitations of which have not always been recognized by writers using it. It would be a very slow, heavy meter did not the longer third line give it needed movement.
The meter known as 6s lacks the longer third line and is therefore peculiarly grave and disjointed. It is well adapted for hymns of passive faith or resignation, such as “My Jesus, as Thou wilt,” “Thy way, not mine, O Lord,” or for dolorous prayers like “My spirit longs for Thee,” and “I hunger and I thirst.”
The meter 6s and 4s in its various forms might be supposed to be even slower than the 6s because of the additional short lines of four syllables each. The opposite is true. In some cases the first four lines are rhythmically equivalent to two lines of ten syllables each, so slight is the pause of actual thought at the end of the six-syllable line, with the result that the slowness is quickened into simple dignity and elevation. But even where the pauses at the end of the first and third lines are long, the shorter second and fourth lines, as in common meter, give added movement. In the other form of 6s and 4s, the first two six-syllable lines are so knit together by their common rhyme and, if properly written, have so markedly a common goal of completeness of thought in the third line toward which they hurry that again the movement is hastened and the severity of the 6s is mitigated. The same principle applies to the following three or four lines, depending on the form examined. Hence we have in the various forms of this meter some of our noblest hymns of prayer, praise, and victory, such as “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” “More love to Thee, O Christ,” “We are but strangers here,” “Fade, fade, each earthly joy,” “My faith looks up to Thee,” “Rise, glorious Conqueror, rise,” “Come, Thou Almighty King,” and “My country, ’tis of thee.”