1544 Who has not found the Heaven — below — (Russian translation)

Боюсь, я не могу согласиться с этим утверждением. Традиция краткого чтения heaven очень давняя, если не сказать древняя. Могу лишь предложить прочитать следующие стихотворения так, не нарушив ритм (я дальше не стал примеры приводить, так как их слишком много, причем часть из них - сонеты, а у них строгая форма):

Where life belongs amid the love of God,
Hope in the heavens. The Holy One be thanked...
(The Cuckoo Song)

Weep you no more, sad fountains;
What need you flow so fast?
Look how the snowy mountains
Heaven's sun doth gently waste...
(Weep You No More, Sad Fountains)

Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest;
Whose heavenly gifts increase'd by disdain
...
But to the heavens that simple soul is fled,
Which left with such as covet Christ to know...
(H. Howard, Wyatt Resteth Here)

In vain you eyes, you eyes do waste your tears,
In vain you sighs do smoke forth my despairs,
In vain you search the earth and heaven above,
In vain you search, for fortune rules in love...
(Sir Walter Ralegh, Fortune Hath Taken Thee Away, My Love)

And with them eke, O Goddesse heavenly bright,
Mirrour of grace and Majestie divine,
(E. Spenser)

Ne joy of ought that under heaven doth hove,
Can comfort me, but her owne joyous sight:
(E. Spenser, Sonnet 89)

But just as heaven would have, to cross it,
In came the bridesmaids with the posset.
(J. Suckling, A Ballad upon Wedding)

Where Heaven's free subjects might their rights dispute,
Lest God himself should seem too absolute;
(A. Pope, An Essay on Criticism)

Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall.
(A. Pope, The Rape of the Lock)

Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea:
(W. Wordsworth, It Is a Beauteous Evening )

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
(W. Wordsworth, London, 1802)

Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
(W. Wordsworth, Ode)

Да, есть и стихотворения, где heaven читается как /хэвен/, но приведенные примеры как минимум показывают, что это не единственно возможный вариант.