I am a firm believer in evolution, I am after all an ecologist. For a while now, I have been trying to find the time to finish Richard Dawkins’ ” The Greatest Show on Earth” where he takes on the creationists and tries to convince them that evolution is indeed a proven fact. Halfway through the book, I came across an old hymn I used to sing as a kid in school. The hymn was starred and there was a footnote that accompanied it. The footnote gave a very different version of the hymn. This parody to the hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (I’m sharing both here, the original and the one mentioned in the book) was written by Eric Idle and apparently sung by the Monty Python team. It’s an interesting parody indeed.
The Original (written in 1848 by Mrs. Cecil Francis Alexander) All Things Bright and Beautiful
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
[Most hymnals omit the following verse]
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
The purple headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.
The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day.
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.
Eric Idle’s Parody: All Things Dull and Ugly (From the Monty Python movie “The Meaning of Life”
All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom.
He made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.
Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid–
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!
All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.
Amen.
