I ran across this while looking up the words to a Watts hymn.
"When teenager Isaac Watts complained to his father about the monotonous way Christians in England sang the Old Testament Psalms, his father, a leading deacon, snapped back, 'All right young man, you give us something better.'
To Isaac Watts, the singing of God's praise was the form of worship nearest to Heaven and he went on to argue: 'It's performance among us is the worst on earth.' Young Isaac accepted his father's challenge and eventually wrote a total of more than 600 hymns, earning him the title 'The father of English hymnody.'
Even as a child Isaac had shown a passion for poetry, rhyming and such mundane things as everyday conversation.
His serious-minded father, after several warnings, decided to spank the rhyming nonsense out of his son. But the tearful Isaac helplessly replied,
'Oh father do some pity take,
and I will no more verses make.'
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