"Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" is an English Christian harvest festival hymn written in 1844 by Henry Alford. It is often sung to the tune St. George's, Windsor by George Job Elvey.
Video Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
History
Alford wrote "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" in 1844 while he was the rector of Aston Standford church in Buckinghamshire, England. It was first published in Hymns and Psalms in 1844 with seven verses under the title "After Harvest". "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" was set to George J. Elvey's hymn tune St. George's, Windsor in 1858. In 1865, Alford revised the hymn, and it was republished in his Poetical Works with only four verses. In 1861 there had been a number of unofficial revisions of the hymn, including in "one in Hymns Ancient and Modern, which led to Alford publishing a footnote in Poetical Works stating his disapproval of these revisions that had been made without his agreement. Despite this, Alford revised the hymn again in 1867 in Year of Praise. Alford was a moderate who attempted to keep good relations between non-conformists and the High Church Anglicans in the Church of England: "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" is Alford's only hymn that is found in evangelical hymn books. The hymn later gained popularity in the United States where it is used as part of Thanksgiving celebrations.
The first verse is written as a celebration of the harvest, calling for people to give thanks to God for it. The last two verses are based on the Parable of the Tares, and discuss the last harvest at the Second Coming of Jesus.
Maps Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
Recordings and popular culture
The group Cantus recorded this in 2014. Steeleye Span recorded the first verse of the hymn as part of the song Marigold/Harvest Home on the Sails of Silver album. "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" was used in the "All is Safely Gathered In" episode of British sitcom Dad's Army where it is performed by a drunk Walmington-on-Sea platoon at a harvest service. Some scholars assert that this hymn is the one sung by the Cabby in C. S. Lewis's children's book The Magician's Nephew before the creation of Narnia:
He struck up at once a harvest thanksgiving hymn, all about crops being "safely gathered in." It was not very suitable to a place which felt as if nothing had grown there since the beginning of time, but it was the one he could remember best.
Lyrics
Lyrics in Public Domain
Hymns Ancient & Modern
References
External links
- Recording from Hymnswithoutwords.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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