The painted heavens, so full of state;
Who did the solid earth ordain
To rise above the watery plain;
Who, by His all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light,
And caused the golden-tressed sun
All the day long his course to run.”
POETRY.
Paraphrases of the Psalms were attempted by distinguished poets who rarely touched on sacred themes. John Oldham, for example, who died in 1683, composed a number of elaborate lines upon the 137th Psalm, but they contain as little of devotion as they do of harmony and rhythm. I am not aware that Dryden clothed any of the Psalms in English numbers, but he translated the Te Deum, and wrote a hymn for St. John’s Eve. These pieces are little known, and scarcely strike the chords of devotion; but there is a rich, full, Divine spirit in his rendering of the Veni Creator Spiritus, such as floods the soul with heavenly desires:—
“Creator Spirit, by whose aid