Creator Spirit, by whose aid

Creator Spirit, by whose aid. Latin, translated by John Dryden* (1631-1700). Dryden’s translation of the Latin hymn ‘Veni creator spiritus’* appeared first in one of a series of poetical collections published by a bookseller in London, Jacob Tonson, entitled Examen Poeticum: Being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems (1693). It consisted of 39 lines, arranged in irregular verses from four to nine lines in length. It was used, with some alteration, by John Wesley* in his first British hymnbook, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738), and it has remained in use in many countries, although there are signs that it is no longer as popular as it was (it is in EH but not in NEH, in CP but not in...

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