Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926-2024). A crucial moment in the story of 20th-century hymnody (or the ‘hymn-explosion’) came at Vanburgh Park in Blackheath, South East London, in May 1961. In the first home of his married life with Arlette, the then Assistant Secretary of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society was exploring a review copy of The New English Bible New Testament, and was struck by its version of Mary’s words, or ‘Magnificat’*, in Luke 1:46ff. He noted that the iambic pentameter line that began the translation would make a good opening for a metrical paraphrase of the canticle; the verses he wrote that evening to a clear fourfold structure...