[1]“Jesus, the very thought of Thee” (Caswall) or “Jesus, Thou joy of
loving hearts” (Palmer).
[2]“O sacred Head, now wounded,” translated by James W. Alexander from
Paul Gerhardt’s “O Haupt voll Blut and Wunden,” a German version
of the Latin hymn above.
[3]Imagine a poem of such length in the difficult “Leonine hexameter”
of which the following translated lines will give an inkling:
“These are the latter times, these are not better times, let us
stand waiting!
Lo, how with awfulness, He, first in lawfulness, comes
arbitrating.”
Dr. Neale wisely reduced his centos to a plain meter, giving them
practical usefulness.
[4]Matthew Arnold described it as “the utterance of all that is
exquisite in the spirit of its century.” (Quoted by Gillman, in
his _Evolution of the English Hymn_.)