Praise to God

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825)

PRAISE to God, immortal praise,

For the love that crowns our days—

Bounteous source of every joy,

Let Thy praise our tongues employ!

For the blessings of the field,

For the stores the gardens yield,

For the vine’s exalted juice,

For the generous olive’s use;

Flocks that whiten all the plain,

Yellow sheaves of ripened grain,

Clouds that drop their fattening dews,

Suns that temperate warmth diffuse—

All that Spring, with bounteous hand,

Scatters o’er the smiling land;

All that liberal Autumn pours

From her rich o’erflowing stores:

These to Thee, my God, we owe—

Source whence all our blessings flow!

And for these my soul shall raise

Grateful vows and solemn praise.

Yet should rising whirlwinds tear

From its stem the ripening ear—

Should the fig-tree’s blasted shoot

Drop her green untimely fruit—

Should the vine put forth no more,

Nor the olive yield her store—

Though the sickening flocks should fall,

And the herds desert the stall—

Should Thine altered hand restrain

The early and the latter rain,

Blast each opening bud of joy,

And the rising year destroy;

Yet to Thee my soul should raise

Grateful vows and solemn praise,

And when every blessing ’s flown,

Love Thee—for Thyself alone.