From the Tiny Ant

This is a song for children about caring for creation.

It was written by (presumably English) children's hymn-writer Geoffrey Gardner.

It was initially published in England by the BBC in Come and Praise volume 2 and later included in Really Good Songs for Junior Church (Kevin Mayhew Ltd, UK, 2008) as well as the Complete Come and Praise - the latter two books are still in print, and are the only sources of sheet music for this song found so far.

It is set to an unnamed tune composed for the text by English composer, choral singing expert and conductor Douglas Coombes. This tune has a 4/4 time signature.  In the key of Y, the first few notes are EF G A GG

Downloads

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Examples

Duet with backing track:

Duet - Latino style:

Instrumental - piano:

Lyrics

The lyrics are copyright so cannot be reproduced here. But they are currently available on this website. A rough outline is:

From the tiny ant,
From the tiny ant,
To the elephant,
To the elephant,
From the snake to the kangaroo.
From the snake to the kangaroo.
From the great white shark,
From the great white shark,
To the singing lark,
To the singing lark,
Care for them it’s up to you,
Care for them it’s up to you
Care for them it’s up to you,
Care for them it’s up to you.
No-one else will care for them
It’s up, it’s up
It’s up to you.

From the tabby cat,
From the tabby cat,
To the desert rat,
To the desert rat,
From the hamster to the chimpanzee.
From the hamster to the chimpanzee.
From the common tern,
From the common tern,
To the crawling worm,
To the crawling worm,
Care for them it’s up to me.
Care for them it’s up to me
Care for them it’s up to me
No-one else will care for them
It’s up, it’s up,
It’s up to me.

From the mongrel dog,
From the mongrel dog,
To the snorting hog,
To the snorting hog,
From the badger to the platypus.
From the badger to the platypus.
From the small minnow,
From the small minnow,
To the white rhino,
To the white rhino,
Care for them it’s up to us.
Care for them it’s up to us.
Care for them it’s up to us.
No-one else will care for them.
It’s up, it’s up
It’s up to us.

See more ...

• Children's hymns
• Hymns about creation

KEEP IN CASE ORIGINAL IS REMOVED, BUT DO NOT DISPLAY
>From the tiny ant,
From the tiny ant,
To the elephant,
To the elephant,
From the snake to the kangaroo.
From the snake to the kangaroo.
From the great white shark,
From the great white shark,
To the singing lark,
To the singing lark,
Care for them it’s up to you
Care for them it’s up to you
No-one else will care for them
It’s up, it’s up
It’s up to you.

From the tabby cat,
From the tabby cat,
To the desert rat,
To the desert rat,
From the hamster to the chimpanzee.
From the hamster to the chimpanzee.
From the common tern,
From the common tern,
To the crawling worm,
To the crawling worm,
Care for them it’s up to me.
Care for them it’s up to me
No-one else will care for them
It’s up, it’s up,
It’s up to me.

From the mongrel dog,
From the mongrel dog,
To the snorting hog,
To the snorting hog,
From the badger to the platypus.
From the badger to the platypus.
From the small minnow,
From the small minnow,
To the white rhino,
To the white rhino,
Care for them it’s up to us.
Care for them it’s up to us.
Care for them it’s up to us.
No-one else will care for them.
It’s up, it’s up
It’s up to us.