Saturday Rave: Psalm 150, versified by Mary Sidney.

The Countess of Pembroke doesn't sound the sort of person it's easy to care much about; but how about clever Mary Sidney? 

Doesn't she sound more interesting?

Mary Sidney was Philip Sidney's sister, and, like him, a poet. She was also a great supporter of writers, letting them stay in her house and encouraging them in all possible ways. She even had various theatre companies to visit (including Shakespeare's) when there was plague in London.

Her most extensive work consisted of completing her brother Philip's verse version of the Psalms. Philip had got as far as Psalm 43 when he died on a military campaign in the Netherlands. There are 171 poems in total (psalm 119 was sensibly split up into twenty two chunks).

The fact that John Donne was an admirer of the Psalms must be some indication of their quality (although admittedly Donne was sometimes very much in need of financial support). In any case we have the psalms available so we can judge for ourselves. They're written in a huge variety of verse forms, surely at least partly designed to show off Mary Sidney's technical ability. Here is a happy one, and the very last.

This one is a sonnet.

See if you think it looks exhausted after all that effort.

Oh, laud the Lord, the God of hosts commend,
Exalt his pow'r, advance his holiness:
With all your might lift his almightiness;
Your greatest praise upon his greatness spend.

Make trumpet's noise in shrillest notes ascend;
May lute and lyre his loved fame express;
Him let the pipe, him let the tabret bless,
Him organ's breath, that winds or waters lend.

 Let ringing timbrels so his honour sound,
Let sounding cymbals so his glory ring,
That in their tunes such melody be found
As fits the pomp of most triumphant king.

Conclude: by all that air or life enfold,
Let high Jehovah highly be extolled.  

*****  

Word to Use Today: laud. This word comes from the Latin laus, which means praise.