Volume 2 No. 5
May, 2024
Exploring trends in the arts
When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride, it is as though the whole creation cried Alleluia!
–Fred Pratt Green 1903-2000)
In this issue...
Nature: Bike Trails and Beauty Outdoors
Worship: Is the psalter making a comeback?
Poetry: John Donne, 17th century poet for the 21st century
Nature
Bike trips: soaking up local beauty via pedals and spokes
Since retiring, I like to explore the area in Central Florida where I live–on a bicycle.
It occurred to me one day that riding has a double benefit –it is great exercise, and it is often an experience of stunning beauty. There is of course value in walking through a forest, or a riverside path, or a village full of shops. For me, pedaling a bike through these wonders is even more fulfilling. Here are a few places and people I get to bike alongside.
Worship
Reforming Anglican worship: A revival of congregational psalm singing?
In 21st century British and American Anglican churches today the worship generally includes a psalm text. It is unusual, however, for a congregation to sing the psalms. Why is that? Largely it is as a result of traditions of psalm singing that exclude the bulk of parishioners because of their difficulty. But there is a movement afoot in many parishes today that calls for using settings of the psalms that are metrical –metered, lined out with rhyming paraphrases of the original texts so that they nicely allow congregants to sing together. Advocates have begun publishing metrical psalms for just such use, that may be included in the Sunday bulletin. Obviously there are limitations in revising the psalms and morphing them into hymn-like poetry, that disregards their Hebrew antecedents. Scholars who prefer the original psalms chanted in gathered worship may not approve. Still, the movement toward a participatory congregational use of psalms more accurately reflects what we know about Old Testament patterns in Jewish worship. More than historical precedent, in the long run, is the obvious need for believers to sing the songs of God from their hearts (even in rhymed metric verse) from the Bible.
Psalter Texts
Psalms for the Common Era : Complete Psalter Anglican Edition: Hebrew edited by Adam Carlill, 2018
Dr. Timothy and Mrs. Julie Tennent’s Seedbed resource.
Christopher L. Webber’s A New Metrical Psalter available on Google books
On closer inspection, the best metrical Psalm texts fairly close to a faithful translation, although expressed in rhyming meter. Another trait of the best metered Psalms is an interpretation of the Psalms that allows for a modern feel while occasionally slipping into the King’s English.
Poetry
John Donne: a voice for the 21st century
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou
Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;
’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
Mere Beauty is a forum to encourage artists to explore works of beauty,
share resources, and go deeply into the treasures around us...
A Word from Terry Yount
Executive Creator, Mere Beauty
This is the final issue of Mere Beauty Journal. Thanks to Designer and Production Assistant Alyssa Smith-Yount, and to all who have faithfully followed us since 2022!
As always, I encourage you to regularly pause and ponder the beauty all around us, it is God’s gift for our benefit and edification. And of course, we urge you to follow Mere Beauty –where essays, art works, poetry, music, and theological exploration will continue...stay tuned.
We'd love to know your thoughts about Mere Beauty. Your feedback, as always, is welcome.
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