"Though gripes of grief and pangs full sore
shall lodge with us all night."
"For why their hearts were nothing lent
to Him nor to His trade."
"Our soul in God hath joy and game."
"They are so fed that even for fat
thier eyes oft-times out start."
"They grin they mow they nod thier heads."
"While they have war within thier hearts."
as butter are thier words."
"Divide them Lord & from them pul
thier devilish double-tongue."
"My silly soul uptake."
"And rained down Manna for them to eat
a food of mickle-wonder."
"For joy I have both gaped & breathed."
But it is useless to multiply these selections, which, viewed individually,
are certainly absurd and inelegant. They often indicate, however, the exact
thought of the Psalmist, and are as well expressed as the desire to be
literal as well as poetic will permit them to be. Sternhold's verses
compare quite favorably, when looked at either as a whole or with regard to
individual lines, with those of other poets of his day, for Chaucer was the
only great poet who preceded him.
I must acknowledge quite frankly in the face of critics of both this and
the past century that I always read Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms with a
delight, a satisfaction that I can hardly give reasons for. Many of the
renderings, though unmelodious and uneven, have a rough vigor and a
sweeping swing that is to me wonderfully impressive, far more so than many
of the elegant and polished methods of modern versifiers. And they are so
thoroughly antique, so devoid of any resemblance to modern poems, that I
love them for their penetrating savor of the olden times; and they seem no
more to be compared and contrasted with modern verses than should an old
castle tower be compared with a fine new city house. We prefer the latter
for a habitation, it is infinitely better in every way, but we can admire
also the rough grandeur of the old ruin.