A hymn meter or metre indicates the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza of a hymn. This provides a means of marrying the hymn's text with an appropriate hymn tune for singing.
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In the English language poetic meters and hymn meters have different starting points but there is nevertheless much overlap. Take the opening lines of the hymn Amazing Grace:
Analyzing this, a poet would see a couplet with four iambic metrical feet in the first line and three in the second. A musician would more likely count eight syllables in the first line and six in the second.
Completing that verse:
the hymnist describes it as 8.6.8.6 (or 86.86).
Conventionally most hymns in this 86.86 pattern are iambic (weak-strong syllable pairs). By contrast most hymns in an 87.87 pattern are trochaic, with strong-weak syllable pairs:
In practice many hymns conform to one of a relatively small number of meters (syllable patterns), and within the most commonly used ones there is a general convention as to whether its stress pattern is iambic or trochaic (or perhaps dactylic). It is rare to find any significant metrical substitution in a well-written hymn; indeed, such variation usually indicates a poorly constructed text.
All meters can be represented numerically. In addition, some of those most frequently encountered are named:
Often a longer verse will, in effect, be two short verses joined together or doubled. So:
A large number of hymns, including many well known ones, use other meters: examples are "Abide With Me" (10.10.10.10) and "Come Down, O Love Divine" (6.6.11.D).
Hymns written in a particular meter may be sung to any tune in that same meter, as long as the poetic foot (such as iambic, trochaic) also conform.
Most hymnals include a metrical index of the book's tunes.