The Salutation by Gerald Finzi Lyrics

These little limbs, these eyes and hands which here I find
This panting heart wherewith my life begins;
Where have ye been? Behind what curtain were ye from me hid so long?
Where was, in what abyss, my new-made tongue?

When silent I, so many thousand, thousand years
Beneath the dust did in a chaos lie, how could I smiles, or tears
Or lips, or hands, or eyes, or ears perceive?
Welcome, ye treasures which I now receive

From dust I rise and out of nothing now awake
These brighter regions which salute my eyes
A gift from God I take, the earth, the seas, the light, the lofty skies
The sun and stars are mine: if these I prize

A stranger here, strange things doth meet, strange glory see
Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear
Strange, all, and new to me: But that they mine should be who nothing was
That strangest is of all; yet brought to pass