Easter
Rise and Sing
The poet calls his heart to rise and sing praise to the risen Lord, who raises him from dust to gold.
Rise, heart; your Lord is risen.✦ Sing his praise without delay, who takes you by the hand so that you too may rise with him: that, as his death burned you down to dust, his life may make you gold, and much more just.✦✦1
The Cross Teaches Song
The poet awakens his lute and reflects how the cross taught all wood and strings to resound Christ's name.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for your part with all your art. The cross taught all wood to resound the name of the one who carried it.✦2 His stretched sinews taught all strings what key is best to celebrate this highest day.3
The One True Day
The poet joins heart and lute with the Spirit, finds Christ already risen, and declares that only this eternal day truly exists.
Join heart and lute together, and weave a song pleasant and long; or, since all music is only three parts set against each other and multiplied—O let your blessed Spirit take a part, and make up our shortcomings with his sweet art.4 I gathered flowers to strew your way; I took branches from many a tree: But you were up by break of day, And brought your sweetness along with you.56 The sun rising in the East—though it gives light, and the East gives perfume—if they try to challenge your rising, they presume. Is there any day other than this one, even though many suns try to shine? We count three hundred, but we are wrong: there is only one, and that one is forever.7
Read the original English
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 thy part With all thy art. The crosse taught all wood to resound his name, Who bore the same. His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song Pleasant and long: Or, since all musick is but three parts vied And multiplied; O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art.
I got me flowers to straw thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree: But thou wast up by break of day, And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sunne arising in the East, Though he give light, and th' East perfume; If they should offer to contest With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this, Though many sunnes to shine endeavour? We count three hundred, but we misse: There is but one, and that one ever.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.24.34 — The Lord has truly been raised, and he appeared to Simon.
- ↩Rom.6.4-Rom.6.5;Col.2.12 — Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. Rom.6.5 — For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection. Col.2.12 — having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
- ↩Gen.3.19 — By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
- ↩John.19.17;Matt.27.31-Matt.27.32 — Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. Matt.27.31 — And after they had mocked him, they stripped off the robe and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him. Matt.27.32 — As they were going out, they found a man from Cyrene, named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source 'calcined' is alchemical: reduced by intense fire to powder. Rendered 'burned you down to dust' to keep the heat-and-ash sense that sets up the following gold transmutation without leaving an obscure technical term.
- 2 ↩Herbert's conceit: the wooden cross instructs all wood (including the lute's body) to sound out Christ's name; 'the same' is the cross he bore.
- 3 ↩Christ's sinews stretched on the cross are cast as the model for instrument strings; 'this most high day' is Easter.
- 4 ↩"vied and multiplied" is Herbert's musical language for three-part harmony: the parts contend with one another and are then expanded. The plea that follows asks the Spirit to become the completing voice.
- 5 ↩Source 'sweets' means sweet scents, delights, or fragrance (not confectionery); rendered as 'sweetness' to keep the Easter-morning sense without sounding like candy.
- 6 ↩Source 'straw' is Early Modern for 'strew' (scatter flowers on a path); modernized to 'strew.'
- 7 ↩"three hundred" keeps Herbert's approximate count of ordinary days against the one true Easter day; "misse" rendered as "miss the mark" to carry the sense of erring in that count.
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