For Easter Day (Herbert, Hopkins and Barnes)

Three English poems:

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, 

      Though foolishly he lost the same, 

            Decaying more and more, 

                  Till he became 

                        Most poore: 

                        With thee 

                  O let me rise 

            As larks, harmoniously, 

      And sing this day thy victories: 

Then shall the fall further the flight in me. 

  

George Herbert, from Easter Wings

Gather gladness from the skies;

Take a lesson from the ground;

Flowers do ope their heavenward eyes

And a Spring-time joy have found;

Earth throws Winter's robes away,

Decks herself for Easter Day.

Beauty now for ashes wear,

Perfumes for the garb of woe,

Chaplets for dishevelled hair,

Dances for sad footsteps slow;

Open wide your hearts that they

Let in joy this Easter Day.

G.M.Hopkins, from Easter

Last Easter Jim put on his blue

Frock cwoat, the vu’st time-vier new;

Wi’ yollow buttons all o’ brass,

That glitter’d in the zun lik’ glass;

An’ pok’d ‘ithin the button-hole

A tutty he’d a-begg’d or stole.

A span-new wes-co’t, too, he wore,

Wi’ yellow stripes all down avore;

An’ tied his breeches’ lags below

The knee, wi’ ribbon in a bow;

An’ drow’d his kitty-boots azide,

An’ put his laggens on, an’ tied

His shoes wi’ strings two vingers wide,

Because ‘twer Easter Zunday.

An’ after mornen church wer out

He come back hwome, an’ stroll’d about

All down the vields, an’ drough the leane,

Wi’ sister Kit an’ cousin Jeane,

A-turnen proudly to their view

His yollow breast an’ back o’ blue.

The lambs did play, the grounds wer green,

The trees did bud, the zun did sheen;

The lark did zing below the sky,

An’ roads wer all a-blown so dry,

As if the zummer wer begun;

An’ he had sich a bit o’ fun!

He meade the maidens squeal an’ run,

Because ‘twer Easter Zunday.

William Barnes, Easter Zunday

Ἀναστάσεως ἡμέρα, καὶ λαμπρυνθῶμεν τῇ πανηγύρει, καὶ ἀλλήλους περιπτυξώμεθα.