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| | Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Papers | Christian Classics Ethereal Library |
 | | There are common metre, long metre, short metre, double short metre, 6.8s, 7s, 8s and 6s, 6s and 8s, 7s and 6s, 10S and 11S, 4.6s and 2.8s, 8s, 5s and I IS, 2.6s and 4.7s (to take a few examples) and the large number lumped together, very properly, as peculiar metre. |
 | | The metre most familiar to most of us is, I suppose, iambic: in this metre the line is divided into pairs of syllables with the stress falling on the second syllable. |
 | | The metre 2.6s and 4.7s is so artificial as to be at first, even in Wesley’s hands, slightly irritating and precious; but once you have made yourself familiar with it (especially if you have taken the trouble to see precisely what Wesley is doing) it holds you. |
| www.ccel.org /ccel/manning/wesleyhymns.P3.html (4489 words) |
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