A Lancashire Doxology
A Lancashire Doxology
Original Text
Dinah Maria Craik, Poems (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866), pp. 253-54. LE C887p. Robarts Library.
"Some cotton has lately been imported into Farringdon,
where the mills have been closed for a considerable time.
The people, who were previously in the deepest distress, went
out to meet the cotton: the women wept over the bales and
kissed them, and finally sang the Doxology over them."
Spectator of May 14, 1863.
2Praise Him who sendeth joy and woe.
3The Lord who takes, -- the Lord who gives, --
4O praise Him, all that dies, and lives.
5He opens and He shuts his hand,
6But why, we cannot understand:
7Pours and dries up his mercies' flood,
8And yet is still All-perfect Good.
9We fathom not the mighty plan,
10The mystery of God and man;
11We women, when afflictions come,
12We only suffer and are dumb.
13And when, the tempest passing by,
14He gleams out, sun-like, through our sky,
15We look up, and through black clouds riven,
16We recognize the smile of Heaven.
17Ours is not wisdom of the wise,
18We have no deep philosophies:
19Childlike we take both kiss and rod,
20For he who loveth knoweth God.
Notes
1] A verse from the "Morning and Evening Hymn" by Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711). Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1859
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme