Cædmon's Hymn

Cædmon · c. 658-680

Catalog grade guidance: 9–12

10 content lines · 78 words · Est. recitation about 44 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #31172: Old English Poems, translated into the original meter, by Cosette Faust and Stith Thompson (Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1918). Translator: Cosette Faust and Stith Thompson.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

## Cædmon's Hymn

   Now shall we praise  the Prince of heaven,
   The might of the Maker  and his manifold thought,
   The work of the Father:  of what wonders he wrought
   The Lord everlasting,  when he laid out the worlds.
   He first raised up  for the race of men
   The heaven as a roof,  the holy Ruler.
   Then the world below,  the Ward of mankind,
   The Lord everlasting,  at last established
   As a home for man,  the Almighty Lord.