The sixth section speaks of the flowers - the poetry of Christ. The same thought is carried on in the fifth section with the illustration of the mouse. In the fourth section Smart takes his beloved cat as an example of nature praising God by being simply what the Creator intended it to be. The third is a quiet and estatic Hallelujah. The second gives a few examples of one person after another being summoned from the pages of the Old Testament to join with some creature in praising and rejoicing in God. The main theme of the poem, and that of the Cantata is the worship of God, by all created beings and things, each in its own way.The Cantata is made up of ten short sections. The writer was Christopher Smart, an eighteenth century poet, deeply religious, but of a strange and unbalanced mind.Rejoice in the Lamb was written while Smart was in an asylum, and is chaotic in form but contains many flashes of genius.It is a few of the finest passages that Benjamin Britten has chosen to set to music. Festival CantataInstrument : solo parts (SATB), mixed choir and organType : vocal/piano scoreNombre de Pages : 44The words of the Cantata Rejoice in the Lamb are taken from a long poem of the same name.
