Alliteration is a friendly gesture on an author’s part. I was greatly helped in memorizing “Like a River Glorious” by Miss Havergal, who wrote that “Peace” was “Perfect” and it “Floweth Fuller.” She proceeded to proclaim that “not a surGE of worry, not a SHade of care, not a blast of hurry, touCH the spirit there.”
She even added a gentle pun: God’s perfect peace floweth “fuller” (stanza 1), so we may trust Him “fully” (stanza 3).
Have you ever photocopied a hymn and circled or blocked its alliterations, even drawing lines between them? The pattern of circles and blocks is a sign of the author’s (or translator’s) prowess.
A good pattern also signifies respect for the Incarnation.
I’m not kidding.
Hymn writers who are in a hurry to get across an idea or to make a point, who hover on the theoretical level, don’t bother with artistic development or care for the language. There is no tenderness in how they handle words. They have not allowed language to roll over their tongue and to taste the physicality of a verb. It’s as if God were all Head and no Body.
Likewise, hymn singers who slop their consonants are too spiritual for their own good. God made us physical creatures with a physical language, spoken with tongue and breath and throat. We worship God with our whole bodies when we pronounce our beginnings and ends.
It’s no accident that “Jehovah” fit better in Miss Havergal’s chorus than “the LORD God”; the softly buzzing “v” sound in “Jehovah” is reflected in the softer “f” sound that fills stanzas and refrain. A picture of the Incarnation in a single song.
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