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| THY name, O Lord, how great, is found before our sight! | |
| It fills the earth, and spreads the air: the great works of thy might! | |
| For even unto the heavens thy power hath given a place, | |
| And closed it above their heads; a mighty, large, compass. | |
| Thy praise what cloud can hide, but it will shine again: | 5 |
| Since young and tender sucking babes have power to shew it plain. | |
| Which in despight of those that would thy glory hide, | |
| [Thou] hast put into such infants’ mouths for to confound their pride. | |
| Wherefore I shall behold thy figur’d heaven so high, | |
| Which shews such prints of divers forms within the cloudy sky: | 10 |
| As hills, and shapes of men; eke beasts of sundry kind, | |
| Monstrous to our outward sight, and fancies of our mind. | |
| And eke the wanish moon, which sheens by night also; | |
| And each one of the wandering stars, which after her do go. | |
| And how these keep their course; and which are those that stands; | 15 |
| Because they be thy wondrous works, and labours of thy hands. | |
| But yet among all these I ask, ‘What thing is man?’ | |
| Whose turn to serve in his poor need this work Thou first began. | |
| Or what is Adam’s son that bears his father’s mark? | |
| For whose delight and comfort eke Thou hast wrought all this work. | 20 |
| I see thou mind’st him much, that dost reward him so: | |
| Being but earth, to rule the earth, whereon himself doth go. | |
| From angel’s substance eke Thou mad’st him differ small; | |
| Save one doth change his life awhile; the other not at all. | |
| The sun and moon also Thou mad’st to give him light; | 25 |
| And each one of the wandering stars to twinkle sparkles bright. | |
| The air to give him breath; the water for his health; | |
| The earth to bring forth grain and fruit, for to increase his wealth. | |
| And many metals too, for pleasure of the eye; | |
| Which in the hollow sounded ground in privy veins do lie. | 30 |
| The sheep to give his wool, to wrap his body in; | |
| And for such other needful things, the ox to spare his skin. | |
| The horse even at his will to bear him to and fro: | |
| And as him list each other beast to serve his turn also. | |
| The fishes of the sea likewise to feed him oft; | 35 |
| And eke the birds, whose feathers serve to make his sides lie soft. | |
| Or whose head thou hast set a crown of glory too, | |
| To whom also thou didst appoint, that honour should be do. | |
| And thus thou mad’st him lord of all this work of thine; | |
| Of man that goes, of beast that creeps, whose looks doth down decline; | 40 |
| Of fish that swim below, of fowls that fly on high, | |
| Of sea that finds the air his rain, and of the land so dry. | |
| And underneath his feet, Thou hast set all this same; | |
| To make him know, and plain confess, that marvellous is thy name. | |
| And, Lord, which art our Lord, how marvellous it is found | 45 |
| The heavens do shew, the earth doth tell, and eke the world so round. | |
| Glory, therefore, be given to Thee first, which art three; | |
| And yet but one Almighty God, in substance and degree: | |
| As first it was when Thou the dark confused heap, | |
| Clotted in one, didst part in four; which elements we clepe: 1 | 50 |
| And as the same is now, even here within our time; | |
| So 2 ever shall hereafter be, when we be filth and slime. | |
