Thursday, May 10, 2007 AD The Hymn with the Grammatical Error I'll have to brace myself on Sunday for singing #271. The rules may have been different in the 18th century when Isaac Watts penned "Each of us cry with thankful tongues" (and really, who am I to criticize Isaac Watts, anyway?) but it ought to be "Each [singular!] of us cries with thankful tongue." I confess, I edit it when I sing it.
Evidently I'm not the only one to be bothered by this. Google is tied at 85 instances of each rendering of the line, so others have also changed it over the years. I found one reference that said such a change would ruin the poetry, but it was already an assonance ("'Don't ask him what an assy-thingummy is,' said Edmund.") so dropping the s really doesn't botch the aesthetics as much as the grammar does.
But changing the rhyme does botch the last line of Psalm 17A, which we're also singing this Sunday. Consider this a public service announcement: erred rhymes with word. It is not pronounced aired. I confess I hit the ur sound a little louder than the rest of the notes in a vain hope of sharing this truth with those around me. Since this has had absolutely no effect, I've put in a plea with the powers that be (and the substitute powers that be) to share this little tidbit in our Psalm instruction.
We sang 45C last Sunday, and I confess I also still do this.
So there you have it...my rebellious spirit in action, egged on by my various neuroses. And you can see why I love worshiping at my church so much if these are my greatest complaints! Of course there are also a few things I'd do differently in our liturgy, but just enough to give me the opportunity to go along cheerfully. ;-) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 5/10/2007 07:58:00 AM
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