Easter by George Herbert

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delayes,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for they part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name,
Who bore the same.
His streched sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.


Happy Easter, folks.

Maryann

George Herbert is always welcome, no matter the occasion.

There has been much textual confusion about his poems and their arrangement. Some editors have divided the 30 lines that are known as the poem "Easter" into "Easter (1)" and "Easter (2)"; the 12-lines here are "Easter (1)." Other editors see one organic whole made of the 30 lines, with the 13th line (its stanza is sometimes ignored in a 1:2 division) as the perfect a hinge for the two parts.

I know, too, that indenting takes a bit of work in the Erato editor, not it is not too difficult to reproduce Herbert's formatting and it seems only fair to the poem and the poet to do so.

Here's a link that shows the whole. The footnote references are a small nuisance. I hope the text is accurate.

Best wishes, and Happy Easter,
Marcia

Thanks, Marcia!

The link is what I should have thought of providing, rather than giving the format short shrift (and might have, if I had not just sung a three-hour vigil liturgy and been ready to keel over http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif )

Maryann

This is not really an Easter poem, but it's one of my great favorites.

A.E. Housman wrote:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
is hung with bloom along the bough,
and stands about the woodland ride
wearing white for Eastertide.

Now of my threescore years and ten
twenty will not come again,
and take from seventy springs a score,
it only leaves me fifty more.

And since, to look at things in bloom,
fifty springs are little room,
about the woodlands I will go
to see the cherry hung with snow.

Thanks for the reminder of the Housman poem, Gail. It reminds me that there are places in the world--unlike Minnesota--where things are in bloom by Easter!

Maryann

Gail:
The Houseman poem has been set to music by various composers. I have a recording of it (and a number of other fine poems, including Waller's "Go, Lovely Rose," another favorite of mine) sung by Bryn Terfel -- it is not to be missed.
Richard

Richard,
I don't know that recording. I am a little cautious about Bryn Terfel but I know he is very fine when at his best. I'll look out for the recording.
Janet

Me too - thanks!
Does anyone know of any of George Herbert's poems set to music, other than about 2 in the Episc. hymnal? We know that Herbert set some of them to music & played them on the lute, but I don't know if any of his own settings were
preserved or not.