Analysis of Psalm VIII: O Lord, Our Lord

Isaac Watts 1674 (Southampton, Hampshire) – 1748 (Stoke Newington, Middlesex)



O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous great
Is thine exalted name!
The glories of thy heav'nly state
Let men and babes proclaim.

When I behold thy works on high
The moon that rules the night,
And stars that well adorn the sky,
Those moving worlds of light.

Lord, what is man, or all his race,
Who dwells so far below,
That thou should visit him with grace,
And love his nature so?

That thine eternal Son should bear
To take a mortal form;
Made lower than His angels are,
To save a dying worm?

Yet while He lived on earth unknown,
And men would not adore,
The obedient seas and fishes own
His Godhead and his power.

The waves lay spread beneath His feat;
And fish, at his command,
Bring their large shoals to Peter's net,
Bring tribute to his hand.

Those lesser glories of the son
Shone through the fleshly cloud;
Now, we behold Him on His throne,
And men confess Him God.

Let Him be crowned with majesty,
Who bowed His head to death;
And be His honors sounded high,
By all things that have breath.

Jesus, our Lord, how wondrous great
Is thine exalted name!
The glories of thy heavenly state
Let the whole earth proclaim.


Scheme aBab cdcd efef xxxx gxgx xhxh xxgx xici aBab
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 111011101 110101 0101111 110101 11011111 011101 01110101 110111 11111111 111101 11110111 011101 11010111 110101 11011101 110101 11111101 011101 0010010101 110110 01110111 011101 11111101 110111 11010101 11011 11011111 010111 11111100 111111 01110101 111111 101011101 110101 010111001 101101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,086
Words 211
Sentences 12
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 96
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
62

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was an English Christian minister (Congregational), hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. He is recognized as the "Godfather of English Hymnody"; many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages. more…

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