There is a danger that this and similar discussions on Mass propers, especially regarding Entrance Songs, can get stuck on an antiphon v. hymn dilemma.
French monastic communities have developed, over the last 30 years and more, troparia. A troparion is a biblically-based text using an extension of the antiphon/verse structure more common in the Orthodox tradition. If your French is up to it, try http://www.cfc-liturgie.fr. This is the website of the Commission Francophone Cistercienne de liturgie, an inter-Order commission embracing Benedictines as well as Cistercians, monks as well as nuns.
Click 'Temps de l'Avent' on the left-hand side and you find a menu of two 'opening verses' (actually verses with refrain), 28 hymns (for use in the Divine Office), eight Sunday troparia (based on the three-year Lectionary cycle), five other troparia , five antiphons and three litany-prayers - and that's just for Advent: plenty to stimulate the imagination!
This won't help readers looking for immediately-available 'Simple English Propers'. But who knows what a little lateral thinking might produce...
Simple English Propers
Moderators: Dom Perignon, Casimir