First line

The first line of a hymn is the first part of a hymn's full text. In cases where the refrain is sung before the stanzas, make the first line of the first stanza the First Line, and enter the first line of the refrain in the Refrain first line field.

Guidelines

• Use identical capitalization and punctuation as in the hymnal. However, do not include the punctuation at the end of the first line unless it is a question mark or an exclamation point. Also, do not include hyphens and spaces meant to separate syllables.
• Don't move or remove initial articles (the, a)
• Think of the first line as a line of poetry. When possible, use the given meter of the hymn as a guide to how much to include. If the hymn is written in multiple languages, add the first line in the other languages in parentheses behind the top first line.
• All hymn texts must have the first line filled in. If you don't have the first line, use the title with brackets, [title]
• If the first line is in two languages enter the second first line in parentheses behind the first one, but if there are more than two languages just enter the first one, and note all of the languages in the language field.