We Plow the Fields and Scatter

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

Our Word of the Week is farmer, so it’s fitting for us to choose a hymn to cheer the hearts of those who work the soil. “But,” you say, “it’s January! Nobody’s going to plow the soil in January.” Well, nobody will who lives in the north temperate zone and above. In the tropics or in Australia or Brazil or Argentina, a good lot of soil-working will be done. In any case, as tomorrow’s Poem of the Week will show, the farmer has his work to do in all seasons, month by month, in cold weather as in hot, in moist as in dry.
The first time I ever heard this week’s hymn – and it’s something of a scandal that it took so long – I was in high school, and I went to a local production of the musical Godspell. The play seems innocent enough now, though the film, whose opening features a large group of young people of both sexes taking their shoes off and cavorting in a public fountain, is embarrassingly silly. It’s notable, I guess, that the one song I remember clearly from the play is the one whose words and melody the playwright simply took straight from the old traditional hymnals. It’s the harvest hymn “We Plow the Fields and Scatter,” sung to the melody Wir Pfluegen, German for “We Plow,” composed specifically for the text.

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There’s a story behind the poem. After he recovered from a grave illness, the poet, Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), returned to the faith of his childhood and had begun to write religious verses. One of the poems was a dedication to God of the farmer’s life and ways, the seasons of the year, and the goodness of all the gifts of the natural world. The original began with a powerful and perfectly charming stanza that brings us back far earlier than the harvest, earlier than springtime – all the way to the beginning of all things. I’ll translate it here into English prose: “In the beginning the earth was but dark, and waste, and empty, and if anything was to be and to grow, it must come from somewhere else.” After which followed the refrain: “All good gifts came from on high, from God, from the lovely blue heaven above.” And then Claudius simply takes us from that beginning to our time: “So it went from the beginning, just as God spoke, and as it was in the beginning, so it has gone on to this very day.”
And that’s where our hymn begins, in the third stanza, with plowing and scattering seed. Now, Claudius wrote sixteen stanzas for his hymn, with the verses to be sung by a cantor representing the farmer, and the refrain sung by the choir. The hymn proved to be quite popular, and we find it in a collection, Melodies for Schoolchildren, published in 1800. Various composers have set it to music – Claudius himself was the first. The melody we know it by, composed by Johann Schulz, is jaunty and energetic and cheerful, perfect for a harvest festival, with bonfires and good food after honest hard work, and thanks to God who gives us from his great bounty.
In 1862, Jane Campbell composed the fine short paraphrase of Claudius’ poem, giving us the text as we have it for our hymn. In the first stanza, we mention what we do – we plow, we scatter seed – but the sun and the rain are sent down by almighty God, as in fact the seed itself has been wrought by God’s own hand. All good gifts come from Him, and those gifts include, as we see in the second stanza, those things which we cannot produce with all our toil, for God “paints the wayside flower” and “lights the evening star.” At last, in the third stanza, we ask what we can give to God in return for all His gifts. Campbell originally wrote that we can give Him nothing but what He most desires, our grateful hears. That verse was amended slightly so that the hymn would fit well for a harvest service, or really for any service in which an offertory hymn is appropriate: we offer in turn to God His own gifts to us, and, more than all, our “humble, grateful hearts,” for that is the sacrifice He most desires.

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We plough the fields, and scatter The good seed on the land, But it is fed and watered By God's almighty hand; He sends the snow in winter, The warmth to swell the grain, The breezes, and the sunshine, And soft, refreshing rain. Chorus: All good gifts around us Are sent from heaven above, Then thank the Lord, Oh! thank the Lord, for all His love. He only is the Maker Of all things near and far: He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star; The winds and waves obey Him, By Him, the birds are fed; Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread. [Chorus] We thank Thee, then, O Father, For all things bright and good, The seed-time and the harvest, Our life, our health, our food; Accept the gifts we offer, For all Thy love imparts, And, what Thou most desirest Our humble, thankful hearts.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and on-demand access to our full archive, and may add their comments to our posts and discussions. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber. We value all of our subscribers, and we thank you for reading Word and Song!

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