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Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.1
The Hymnal 1982, an updated version of The Hymnal 1940 currently in use in the Episcopal Church, appeared after a decade in which Anglican parishes throughout the United States sang trial hymns and engaged in rancorous debate over which tunes and texts from the past should be retained in the revised hymnal and which should be replaced with new. The "Report of the Standing Commission on Church Music" to the 1982 General Convention of the Episcopal Church stated that among the objectives used to make final decisions of inclusion or exclusion was the need "to reflect the nature of today's Church by including the works of contemporary artists and works representing many cultures." The commission altered texts that "could be interpreted as either pejorative or discriminatory" and sought to include "texts and music which reflect the pluralistic nature of the Church . . . affording the use of Native American, Afro-American, Hispanic, and Asian material."2
The church music commission succeeded in meeting its objectives. It also succeeded in surprising many Episcopalians by retaining the hymns set to texts by George Herbert that had previously been included in The Hymnal 1940, "The Elixir" and "Antiphon (I)," and by adding two more hymns with Herbert texts: "Praise (II)" and "The Call." An examination of Herbert's three stanzas of "The Call"-stanzas that employ compressed, tightly controlled metrical and rhyme schemes as well as an internal logic built upon literal, symbolic, and metaphoric definitions of individual words-together with the hymn setting in the key of E-flat major by Ralph Vaughan Williams, reveals the theological and spiritual content of Herbert's poem, one that has taken its place among the greatest of Anglican hymns.
Herbert's three four-line stanzas display a metrical and syllabic uniformity that serves both...