1. All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

2. Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colours,

He made their tiny wings.

All things bright …

3. The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

God made them, high or lowly,

And order’d their estate.

All things bright …

4. The purple headed mountains,

The river running by,

The sunset and the morning,

That brightens up the sky;−

All things bright …

5. The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,−

He made them every one:

All things bright …

6. The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water,

We gather every day;−

All things bright …

7. He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell,

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

All things bright …

(Amen)

Here is more information about this poem/hymn

I was in grade school when I learn this poem ( I learned it as a poem not as a hymn) and fell in love with it. My grandma ( my father’s mother) can still memorize all of it even at the age of 60 ( I think). When she heard me practicing this, she called and told me that she knew the poem. So I asked here to recite it for me, and she recited it perfectly. Then we would alternately recite it, then sometimes we recite it together. She knew the original version and I knew the edited version , so it was like hearing two different generation. This is just one of the few fond memories I had with my grandma, so whenever I remember this poem, I remember her. She was not much of a grandma, but she was one of the strongest and bravest woman I know. Why? She was totally blind half of her lifetime because her eyes were ravaged by cataract. She did have an operation though, but she was so stubborn and did not listen to the doctor and went immediately back to her business as a restaurant owner, so complication started and before any could react both eyes were already damaged. But even though she was blind, she still does most of the housework , cook , tend to her pigs, clean the house. As a kid I tried imitating her being blind, and we always have some chats about her life. She was always honest. She has lots of experience, even the time when they fled from the Japanese during WWII so I always asked her to tell me stories of her past. She never saw me or any of my cousin except for the oldest cousin, but most people always told me that I was her splitting image(as a kid) when she was still young, but am not sure though I have not seen any of her picture as a young woman. Grandma’s beauty was known to be a head-turner, she was tall and slim and have that “spanish beauty”, she was might really be beautiful.

To Grandma Aurelia Pugoy Yllanan Malingin, may your rest in peace and found ALL Things bright…

November 1 is celebrated as All Souls Day in the Philippines.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 10:35 am and is filed under Life in General, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.