Variations on “St George.” (Woods) - Cantate Domino

“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.

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 commonly found in evangelical hymn books as are Alford’s “Forward be our watchword” and “Ten thousand times ten thousand” . 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.