The Latin hymns differ from classical poetry in that accent and rhyme
prevail instead of syllabic quantity. This is in accordance with the
genius of a language which never disregarded accent and in which rhyme
occurs even in its earliest extant literature, as in Ennius'
_Andromacha_:
Haec omnia vidi inflammari,
Priamo vi vitam evitari, etc.
Among the famous authors of Latin hymns are Adam of St. Victor; St.
Ambrose; Fortunatus; Robert the Second, King of France; Bernard of
Clairvaux; Bernard of Cluny; and Abelard. Among the greatest of the
hymns are the Te Deum, the Veni, Creator Spiritus, the Stabat Mater, the
Veni, Sancte Spiritus, the Dies Irae, the Ut Iucundas, the Iesu, Dulcis
Memoria, and the Hora Novissima.
For Reference: Trench, _Sacred Latin Poetry_ (London, 1874); March,
_Latin Hymns_ (New York, 1874); Daniel, _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_
(Leipzig, 1841-1856, 5 vols.); Merrill, _Latin Hymns_ (Boston, 1904);
Julian, _Dictionary of Hymnology_ (London, 1907). In all see indices of
first lines.