10 Hymn Examples

A anthem is a poetic, sung or musical composition in which gods, saints, heroes or important characters are praised or praised. In the hymns, significant events are also celebrated or the identity of a nation or a community is represented. For example: La Marseillaise (the French national anthem).

The anthem belongs to lyric of poetry, because it conveys feelings and thoughts of exaltation and celebration and because in its expression subjectivity prevails over objectivity.

The hymns were changing their qualities in different times. In ancient times, they were sung by a choir and focused on praising divine or mythological beings.

In the Middle Ages, they were linked to the Catholic liturgy, generally, they were sung by one or several people in different types of ceremonies and they praised the Christian divinities.

From the eighteenth century, they began to refer to elements of nature and, later, they began to be used to represent a community. Such is the case of national anthems, which reflect the identity of a people.

• See also: types of poems

Characteristics of the anthem

• Topics. The themes of a hymn may be the lives or deeds of gods, heroes, saints, or important personages; memorable events or representative elements of a nation or a community.
• Structure. The structure of a hymn is formed by stanzas (sets of verses) and, in many cases, by choruses or choruses (stanzas that are repeated in different parts of the composition).
• Narration Y description. In a hymn, it is very common that different events are narrated or that the characteristics of the subject in question are described. In both cases, a festive and emotional tone is always used.
• Rhetorical figures. Figures of speech are often used in hymns, such as the portrait, the hyperbole or the simile, with the aim of making an aesthetic composition.

hymn examples

1. Fragment of “Hymn III – To Apollo” (It is believed that it was written between 660 and 585 a. C.), by Homer

To this nectar she gives her father in a golden cup,
greeting her son, and then the other divinities 
there they settle; rejoice the august Leto 
because she gave birth to a mighty son, armed with a bow.
Health, blessed Leto, for you gave birth to illustrious children,
Sovereign Apollo and arrow-shooting Artemis,
her in Ortygia and him in rocky Delos,
leaning on a high mountain, the eminence of the Cinto,
very close to the palm tree, next to the Inopo currents.
How will I celebrate you, who are celebrated in all 
the hymns?
For everywhere, Phoebus, song material is offered in 
your Honor,
be it on the mainland, breeder of heifers, be it on the islands;
all watchtowers are pleasing to you, the high peaks 
of the high mountains and the rivers that flow into the sea,
the promontories that go into the waters and the 
sea ​​inlets. (…)

1. Excerpt from "Hymn to Zeus" (280 BC C.), of Callimachus

1. “To Hecate (The Mother of the World)” (written in Late Antiquity), Anonymous

Enodia Triple Hecate, adorable Lady
of the terrestrial, aquatic beings, of the sidereal space;
subterranean, wrapped in a yellow mantle,
protect us with the dark spirits that haunt your gloom!
Praise to you, Persea, solitary deity!
You who hold the keys to the world, infallible,
who frolics with the deer, night hunter,
invincible sovereign led by bulls,
Guiding, nurturing nymph, who wanders through the mountains, listen 
to the supplicants who with their holy rites revere your power,
 lead the high-natured shepherds to our side.

1. “First Sunday hymn of Lauds” (late 4th century AD) C.), of Saint Ambrose

everlasting creator of things,
You rule the nights and the days,
And alternating light and darkness
You relieve the weariness of life.

Summoning light from the shadows
The herald of the sun raises their voices:
Nocturnal clarity of travelers,
That he separates night from night.

Hearing it, the star rises
And at last erases the darkness from the air,
Whereupon the throng of spirits
Malignos puts an end to his wickedness.

With this voice that revives the naut
The waves of the ocean calm down,
With this voice to the very stone
The Church remembers his lack.

The rooster sings and calls the sleeping
He rebukes the easy chairs and rebukes
To those who resist the song of him.
So let us rise up resolutely.

The rooster sings and hope is reborn,
Restore health to the wounded,
The thief's dagger returns to the sheath
And faith awakens in the fallen,

Put your eyes, Lord, on those who hesitate,
And let everyone correct your look:
With it you will support those who stumble.
and you will make him pay for his crime in tears,

Illuminate our senses with your light,
Dispel the torpor of our minds,
and be the first to whom, grateful,
Let our voices rise when they sound.

Glorified be the eternal Father,
Just as his Son Jesus Christ
And just like the Paraclete Spirit,
Now and forever and ever.

1. “I adore you with devotion” (late 13th century), by Saint Thomas Aquinas

I adore you with devotion, hidden God,
truly hidden under these appearances.
My heart submits completely to you,
and surrenders totally to contemplate you.

When judging of You, the sight, the touch, the taste are wrong;
but the ear is enough to firmly believe;
I believe all that the Son of God has said:
nothing is truer than this word of Truth.

Only Divinity hid on the Cross,
but Humanity also hides here;
however, I believe and confess both,
and I ask what that repentant thief asked for.

I don't see the sores as Tomás saw them 
but I confess that you are my God:
make me believe more and more in You,
May I wait for you and love you.

Memorial of the death of the Lord!
Living bread that gives life to man:
Grant my soul that I live from You 
And may I always savor your sweetness.

Lord Jesus, good Pelican,
cleanse me, unclean, with your blood,
from which a single drop can free 
of all crimes to the whole world.

Jesus, whom I now see hidden,
I beg you, that what I long for so much be fulfilled:
that when looking at your face face to face,
May I be happy seeing your glory. Amen.

1. Fragment of "Hymn to immortality" (early 19th century), by José de Espronceda

Hail, creator flame of the world,
fiery tongue of eternal knowledge,
pure germ, fruitful principle,
that you chain death at your feet!

You spur the inert matter,
you order her to get together to live,
you model its mud, and create
thousands of beings of endless forms.

Disrupt your works in vain
death perhaps victorious;
from the remains of him raise your hand
new works triumphant again. (…)

Of life in the deep ocean
man floats in perpetual swing,
and spill abundantly your hand
the creative seed in her being.

Weak man, raise your forehead,
put your lip in its eternal stream;
you will be like the sun in the East,
you will be, like the world, immortal.

1. Fragment of "National Anthem of Peru" (1821), by José de la Torre Ugarte (lyrics) and José Bernardo Alcedo (music)

Chorus

We are free, let's always be
and before the sun denies its lights,
that we miss the solemn vow
that the country raised to the Eternal.

 Verse I

Long time the Peruvian oppressed
the ominous chain dragged;
sentenced to cruel servitude
long time in silence he groaned.
More just the sacred cry
Freedom! On his shores it was heard,
slave indolence shakes,
the humiliated neck raised.

Verse II

Already the rumble of angry chains
that we heard three centuries of horror,
of the free to the sacred cry
that the world heard in astonishment, ceased.
Everywhere Saint Martin inflamed,
Freedom, freedom, he pronounced,
and rocking its base the Andes
they announced it, also with one voice.

Verse III

With its influence the peoples awaken
and like lightning ran the opinion;
from the isthmus to the lands of fire
from the fire to the frozen region.
They all swear to break the link
that nature to both worlds denied,
and break that scepter that Spain,
leaned proudly on both. (…)

1. "Anthem of the Valencian Community" (1909), by Maximiliano Thous Orts (lyrics) and José Serrano Simeón (music)

To offer new glories to Spain
Our Region knew how to fight!
already in the workshop and in the field resound
songs of love, hymns of peace!
Go to the region
that advances in triumphal march!

He comes to give my garden
the wealth that it treasures,
and the water murmurs a song of joy
that was born to the rhythms of Moorish guitar.

command the art paladins,
that they offer you their laurels
and at your feet, sultana, my gardens tend
a tapestry of roses, tuberose and carnations.

They provide rich treasure
the orange groves of the riverbanks;
hanging clusters of gold
under the arches of the palm trees.

Sounds, the beloved voice
and in victorious vibrant they are,
dawn notes
they sing the triumph of the region.

Let's wake up, Valencians!
that our voice
the light greets
of a new sun!

To offer new glories to Spain
Our Region knew how to fight!
already in the workshop and in the field resound
songs of love, hymns of peace!

Float in the air
our lady!
Glory to the Motherland!
Long live Valencia!
Live! Live! Live!

1. "Mexican national anthem" (1854), by Francisco González Bocanegra (lyrics) and Jaime Nunó (music)

Chorus

Mexican to the war cry
The steel prepares and the bridon,
and let the earth tremble in its centers
to the loud roar of the cannon.
And let the earth tremble in its centers
to the loud roar of the cannon.

Verse I

Cina Oh Homeland! your olive temples
of peace the divine archangel,
that in heaven your eternal destiny
by the finger of God it was written.
But if I dare a strange enemy
desecrate your soil with its plant,
think Oh beloved country! than heaven
With each son he gave you a soldier.

Chorus

Verse II

War, war without truce to the one who tries
of the country to stain the coats of arms!
war, war! the patriotic banners
in the waves of blood soak.
War, war! in the mountains, in the valley,
the ghastly cannons thunder
and the sonorous echoes resonate
with the voices of ¡Union! Freedom!

Chorus

Verse III

Before, Homeland, let your children be defenseless
Bend their necks under the yoke,
your fields with blood are watered,
His foot stamped on blood.
And your temples, palaces and towers
collapse with a horrid crash,
and its ruins exist saying:
Of a thousand heroes the homeland was here.

Chorus

Stanza IV

Homeland! Homeland! your children swear to you
exhale on your altars its breath,
if the bugle with its bellicose accent
Calls them to struggle with bravery.
For you the olive garlands!
a memory for them of glory!
a laurel for you of victory!
a sepulcher for them of honor!

Chorus

1. "Hymn to Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca on the second centenary of his death" (1881), by Ventura Ruiz Aguilera (lyrics) and Tomás Bretón (music)

References

• Germ Manuals. (s.f.). The art of making verses.
• Montaner, A. (2015). Dictionary of genres and lyrical modalities of Hispanic literature. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2607.5368
• Rubio Escudero, C. (2015). Anthem. In Spanish Dictionary of International Literary Terms. Retrieved on May 9, 2022, from http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/detli/sites/default/files/Himno.pdf

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• Eclogue
• Epigram
• sonnets
• I lyrical and I poetic
• types of poetry