Poetry Friday and Hymnic Research

Yes, the word hymnic was in my dictionary. I rather like it.

The best place on the internet to get information about hymn writers, hymns, melodies, etc. is probably Cyber Hymnal. The site features over 10,000 hymns and lyricist/composer biographies. It also has pictures of all of the composers and hymn writers of whom they could find pictures. But the music is not nice. It comes on automatically when you click on a given hymn, repeats endlessly until you shut it off, and it’s some kind of electronic midi file that hurts my ears. Not appealing.
CyberHymnal also has a list of copyrighted hymns that have been requested but that the site is unable to post, along with the names of copyright holders, if known.

Oremus Hymnal Wiki “hopes to be the comprehensive source of information about the extensive tradition of English-language hymnody.” It looks as if it started out as a one-man project, and now others are invited to make it grow. Oremus also has articles about historical hymnals with an index to all the hymns published in that particular hymnal.

Scripture and Music has a limited number of hymn lyrics and midi or mp3 files to go with them. There’s also some information about the authors and composers of the hymns in their database.

Hymnal.net has better music, more traditional piano, and not that plinkety-plunkety electronic midi stuff. And from Hymnal.net one can embed the mp3 version of the music to most traditional hymns.

I like the following hymn very much, and I rather doubt it’s well known enough to make the Top 100 list, so I’m including it here for Poetry Friday.
James Mountain who wrote the music for this hymn also wrote the music to Like a River Glorious. The lyrics are by George Wade Robinson:

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.

Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.

Things that once were wild alarms
Cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms,
Pillowed on the loving breast.
Oh, to lie forever here,
Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear,
I am His, and He is mine.

His forever, only His:
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart.
Heaven and earth may fade and flee,
Firstborn light in gloom decline;
But, while God and I shall be,
I am His, and He is mine.

5 thoughts on “Poetry Friday and Hymnic Research

  1. Thanks for your hymn project, the first two plus this one here are great, and I’m looking forward to seeing the 99 that remain to be revealed! One cavil, though: please don’t promote “NetHymnal” or give the impression that it is the legitimate successor to the Cyber Hymnal. It is not. It is the result of a piece of spiritual and intellectual thievery. The original Cyber Hymnal materials are alive and well (and continuing to grow under the direction of their creator) at hymntime.com: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/. “Net Hymnal” is the result of CyberHymnal’s service provider shanghaiing the domain name “cyberhymnal.org”. It is a dishonest site and should be shunned. Legally the provider owned the domain name, but morally and ethically there is no excuse for what they did. (Plus, at the true Cyber Hymnal site you don’t have to read all those intrusive and often absurdly inappropriate ads!)

    Leland aka Haruo

  2. Greetings from Wordwise Hymns. Your blog caught my eye because I posted an article on this hymn this morning. Thank the Lord for His eternal love!

    And I agree 100% with the post by Leland Ross. Around 1996 I began working with Dick Adams, the creator of the original Cyber Hymnal, supplying him with needed information on hymns–something I continue to do from time to time. All of his (and my) work was later pirated unethically by a man in Panama. Dick was forced to change his URL, though he was able to retain the name Cyber Hymnal. Please, link to the hymntime.com site and take a stand against this unChristian conduct. (And incidentally, you can list my own site as a reliable source of information on hymns.)

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