Make a Joyful Grammatical Noise

Is anyone else bothered by the last line of Amazing Grace, “We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise/than when we first begun”? It should be either “than when we first began,” or “than when we had first begun,” which sounds silly. Are we a bunch of musical lemmings, automatically singing bad grammar just because the song’s been hymnalized and is therefore considered holy writ?

Share Button

6 Comments to Make a Joyful Grammatical Noise

Receive Posts by Email

If you subscribe to my Feedburner feed, you'll automatically receive new posts by email. Very convenient.

Categories

Facebook

Monthly Archives

Previous ImageNext Image
Close