All Things Dull and Ugly

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.


The problem of evil gets its bite from the thought that if God made the world then he is responsible not only for its splendour but also for its flaws. This thought led Monty Python’s Eric Idle to rewrite the hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” as “All Things Dull and Ugly”.

LOL