An Easter Carol

Sunburst over a crest of a hill by C. E. Price

It's Easter and National Poetry Month! Enjoy this selection from Christina Rossetti. Wishing you Easter joy!

An Easter Carol
by
Christina Rossetti

Spring bursts to-day,
For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.

Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.

Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.

Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.

Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.

Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead.

Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.

All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.

Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything.

All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.

Botanic Gardens - Easter 2009 (William Murphy) / CC BY-SA 2.0

(This poem is in the public domain.)

I've known about Christina Rossetti since I was in first grade, memorizing her poem "Who Has Seen the Wind?," a poem any prairie child can understand. Read more about Rossetti, a 19th Century poet, here. See more of her poems here.