attained in his later work. They are frankly lyrical. Unlike his great
English contemporary, Isaac Watts, who held that a hymn should not be a
lyrical poem and deliberately reduced the poetical quality of his work,
Brorson believed that a Christian should use "all his thought and skill
to magnify the grace of God". The opinion of an English literary critic
"that hymns cannot be considered as poetry" is disproved by Brorson's
work. Some of his hymns contain poetry of the highest merit. Their
phrasing is in parts extremely lyrical, utilizing to the fullest extent
the softness and flexibility that is supposed to be an outstanding
characteristic of the Danish tongue; their metres are most skillfully
blended and their rhymes exceedingly varied. His masterly use of what was
often considered an inconsequential appendage to poetry is
extraordinarily skillful. Thus he frequently chooses a harsh or a soft
rhyme to emphasize the predominating sentiment of his verse.

Brorson is without doubt the most lyrical of all Danish hymnwriters.
Literary critics have rated some of his hymns with the finest lyrics in
the Danish language. Yet his poetry seldom degenerates to a mere form.
His fervid lyrical style usually serves as an admirable vehicle for the
warm religious sentiment of his song.

In their warm spirit and fervid style Brorson's hymns in some ways
strikingly resemble the work of his great English contemporaries, the
Wesleys. Nor is this similarity a mere chance. The Wesleys, as we know,
were strongly influenced first by the Moravians and later by the German
Pietists. Besides a number of Moravian hymns, John Wesley also translated
several hymns from the hymnbook compiled by the well-known Pietist, Johan
Freylinghausen. The fervid style and varied metres of these hymns
introduced a new type of church song into the English and American
churches. But Freylinghausen's _Gesang-Buch_ also formed the basis of the
hymnal compiled by Johan Herman Schraeder from which Brorson chose most
of the originals of his translations. Thus both he and the Wesleys in a
measure drew their inspiration from the same source. The Danish poet and
his English contemporaries worked independently and mediated their
inspiration in their own way, but the resemblance of their work is
unmistakable. In poetical merit, however, the work of Brorson far excels
that of the Wesleys. But his Christmas hymns also surpass most earlier
Danish hymns and even the greater part