Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
Praise to GodAnna Letitia Barbauld (17431825)
P
For the love that crowns our days:
Bounteous source of every joy,
Let thy praise our tongues employ;
For the stores the gardens yield,
For the vine’s exalted juice,
For the generous olive’s use;
Yellow sheaves of ripened grain;
Clouds that drop their fattening dews,
Suns that temperate warmth diffuse;
Scatters o’er the smiling land:
All that liberal Autumn pours
From her rich o’erflowing stores:
Source whence all our blessings flow;
And for these my soul shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise.
From its stem the ripening ear;
Should the fig-tree’s blasted shoot
Drop her green untimely fruit;
Nor the olive yield her store;
Though the sickening flocks should fall,
And the herds desert the stall;
The early and the latter rain,
Blast each opening bud of joy,
And the rising year destroy:
Grateful vows and solemn praise;
And, when every blessing’s flown,
Love thee—for thyself alone.