There is a fountain

When I was a freshman at LSU studying English literature, the professor said he was told when a  child that hymns were literature.   He   learned that was not always  true. but "this is literature" he said, referring to William Cowper's poem "There Is a Fountain Filled with blood."

I agree that Cowper's poem and the music make this a favorite hymn but it  is also true that some  hymns  have a wonderful message without being judged as literature.