It is that time of the year again when Christains across the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; when believers celebrate the victory over sins and death. This celebration, known as Easter, is one of the most important and meaningful celebrations in the Christian calendar.
Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which, according to the New Testament of the Bible, occurred on the third day after his crucifixion by the Romans.
Easter is a season of renewal, hope, and profound spiritual reflection. In the spirit of this festive period, we have compiled five powerful Easter poems that are sure to enrich your Easter reflection.
1. “Easter Wings” by George Herbert
Poem
Easter Wings
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.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne
And still with sicknesses and shame.
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
Analysis of Easter Wings
“Easter Wings” is a beautiful poem written by George Herbert, a poet and priest from the 1600s. The poem reflects on Easter, a Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and uses this theme to explore ideas of sin, redemption, and spiritual growth. The poem is especially interesting because it’s shaped like wings, which symbolises the idea of the soul rising toward heaven.
In the first part of the poem, Herbert talks about how God created humans with everything they could need (“wealth and store”). But because of sin, we lost all of that. We became poor in material things and spiritually. Herbert writes that humans “decay more and more,” meaning that sin leads to suffering and a downward spiral.
But there’s good news: the speaker (Herbert) asks God to help him rise again, just like a lark (a bird) that flies into the sky, singing. This represents the idea of redemption, which is what Easter is all about—the idea that we can rise from our “decay” (spiritual weakness) and start fresh.
“And sing this day thy victories: / Then shall the fall further the flight in me.”
Herbert is saying that by remembering Christ’s victory over death, he can rise too. In other words, even though humans fall into sin and suffering, through Christ, we can be lifted up.
In the second stanza, Herbert talks about his own life. He says his “tender age” (youth) began in sorrow and continues with sickness and shame. This could mean he experienced a lot of struggles and hardships early on in life. He recognises that these struggles are a form of punishment for sin.
Despite all this, Herbert believes that by joining with Christ—by focusing on Christ’s resurrection—he can overcome his struggles. He uses the metaphor of “imphing” his wing on Christ’s, which means joining his weakness with Christ’s strength. This union with Christ helps Herbert rise spiritually, just as Christ rose from the dead.
“For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction shall advance the flight in me.”
Herbert is saying that, like the wings of a bird, suffering (or affliction) can actually help him soar higher spiritually if he connects it with Christ’s resurrection. Instead of letting his difficulties pull him down, he sees them as a way to rise higher.
Lessons from Easter Wings
- The poem shows that even though humanity fell into sin and suffering, Christ’s resurrection gives us hope for redemption and spiritual rebirth.
- Herbert talks about his own personal suffering and how he finds strength through Christ. This reminds us that struggles are a part of life, but they don’t have to define us.
- The “flight” in the poem symbolises spiritual growth—rising above life’s challenges and becoming closer to God through faith and redemption.
- The poem celebrates the power of Christ’s resurrection (Easter), which is the central theme. Through this resurrection, we can rise above sin, suffering, and death.
2. “The Easter Flower” by Claude McKay
Poem
The Easter Flower
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly
My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,
Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily
Soft-scented in the air for yards around;
Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf!
Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,
It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief
In the young pregnant year at Eastertime;
And many thought it was a sacred sign,
And some called it the resurrection flower;
And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine,
Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
Analysis of The Easter Flower
“The Easter Flower” by Claude McKay is a poem about finding beauty, meaning, and spirituality in nature, especially in a flower that blooms around Easter time.
McKay uses the Easter flower (the Easter lily) to explore themes of life, death, and rebirth from a more personal, nature-based perspective.
The speaker in the poem feels far away from traditional Easter celebrations. Instead of focusing on the religious aspect, he connects with the flower in a way that feels more personal and spiritual to him.
The poem begins with the speaker describing a place that feels far away from the warmth of Easter celebrations. He’s in a “foreign” and “chilly” place, where the weather is cold and damp. This might make the speaker feel distant from the usual joyful Easter experiences.
“Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly / My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground…”
Instead of focusing on Easter in a traditional way, the speaker’s “soul” (his inner self) travels to a place where an Easter lily is growing. The lily is connected to Easter because it symbolises new life and resurrection (coming back to life after death).
The speaker describes the Easter lily as delicate and fragile, almost like a “bell of silver rime” (a cold, frosty bell). The lily “bursts the tomb,” which means it grows from the ground, symbolising life coming after death. This mirrors the resurrection of Christ, but the speaker focuses on the beauty and the short-lived nature of the flower, which blooms briefly in the spring.
“It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief / In the young pregnant year at Eastertime…”
The speaker notices how this flower blooms at Easter, which is a time of renewal. But instead of just seeing it as a religious symbol, he appreciates it for its own beauty and meaning.
While some people see the flower as a religious symbol, calling it a “resurrection flower,” the speaker calls himself a “pagan.” This means he doesn’t follow the same religious beliefs as others. Instead, he feels a deep personal connection to the flower, almost as if he is worshipping it for its beauty and power.
“And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine, / Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power…”
To the speaker, the flower represents something sacred, not in the way that Christians might see the resurrection, but in its own unique way. The “perfumed power” suggests that the beauty and scent of the flower have a kind of spiritual effect on him.
Lessons from The Easter Flower
- The poem suggests that spirituality isn’t just about religious practices. The speaker finds something sacred in nature itself, especially in the Easter lily. This shows that nature can have its own spiritual power, even if you don’t follow a particular religion.
- The Easter lily is a symbol of resurrection because it blooms in spring, just like how Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. But McKay also emphasises that the flower’s life is short (“sweet and brief”), which reminds us that life and beauty are temporary.
- The speaker calls himself “a pagan,” meaning he has a different spiritual belief than those who associate the lily with Christianity. This shows that people can find meaning and beauty in different ways, whether through religion, nature, or personal experience.
- The poem emphasises the power of nature’s beauty to inspire feelings of reverence and spiritual connection, even if that connection doesn’t come from a traditional religious framework.
3. “Seven Stanzas at Easter” by John Updike
Poem
Seven Stanzas at Easter
Make no mistake: if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
Each soft spring recurrent;
It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the
Eleven apostles;
It was as His flesh; ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes
The same valved heart
That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered
Out of enduring Might
New strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
Not a stone in a story,
But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
Time will eclipse for each of us
The wide light of day.
And if we have an angel at the tomb,
Make it a real angel,
Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in
The dawn light, robed in real linen
Spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed
By the miracle,
And crushed by remonstrance.
Analysis of Seven Stanzas at Easter
“Seven Stanzas at Easter” by John Updike is a poem that explores the resurrection of Jesus Christ in a very direct and physical way. Updike challenges readers to see the resurrection not as a metaphor or a spiritual idea but as a real, physical event.
The poet starts by saying that if Jesus truly rose from the dead, He did so physically—His body was restored, and the cells, molecules, and organs that died on the cross were brought back to life. Updike is clear that without this physical resurrection, Christianity doesn’t make sense. The resurrection isn’t just an idea; it was a real event that involved Jesus’ actual body.
In the second stanza, Updike rejects the idea of seeing the resurrection as just a symbol, like the flowers blooming in spring. Some people may try to spiritualise or make the resurrection a metaphor for something else, but Updike insists it was about the real, physical return of Jesus’ body to life.
Updike focuses on the specific details of Jesus’ body—His thumbs, toes, and heart. He describes how Jesus’ body, which was pierced and died on the cross, came back to life and was made strong again. The resurrection wasn’t just in the spirit; it was in Jesus’ actual, physical body.
The poet warns against reducing the resurrection to a mere story or symbol. He wants us to take it seriously as a physical miracle that happened in the real world. If we try to make it less shocking or “comfortable” by turning it into a metaphor, we lose its power.
Updike also emphasises that everything about the resurrection is real and physical. He imagines the stone that was rolled away from the tomb as a real, heavy object, not a fake one. He even insists that the angel at the tomb should be a real, physical angel, not just an abstract idea.
In the final stanza, Updike warns us not to try to make the resurrection more beautiful or less frightening. He says that if we do this, we might miss the true significance of the event. The resurrection is a miracle, and miracles are often shocking and overwhelming, but that’s what makes them so powerful.
Lessons from Seven Stanzas at Easter
- The main point of the poem is that the resurrection must be understood as a literal, physical event. Jesus didn’t just rise in a spiritual way; His body came back to life.
- Updike warns against turning the resurrection into a comfortable or abstract idea. We shouldn’t make it a metaphor to make it easier to understand; instead, we should face the miracle in its full, overwhelming reality.
- The poem reminds us that miracles, like the resurrection, are not easy to explain or understand. They are powerful, life-changing events, and we should accept them as they are—real and miraculous.
4. “Easter Morning” by A. R. Ammons
Poem
Easter Morning
I have a life that did not become,
that turned aside and stopped,
astonished:
I hold it in me like a pregnancy or
as on my lap a child
not to grow old but dwell on
it is to his grave I most
frequently return and return
to ask what is wrong, what was
wrong, to see it all by
the light of a different necessity
but the grave will not heal
and the child,
stirring, must share my grave
with me, an old man having
gotten by on what was left
when I go back to my home country in these
fresh far-away days, it’s convenient to visit
everybody, aunts and uncles, those who used to say,
look how he’s shooting up, and the
trinket aunts who always had a little
something in their pocketbooks, cinnamon bark
or a penny or nickel, and uncles who
were the rumored fathers of cousins
who whispered of them as of great, if
troubled, presences, and school
teachers, just about everybody older
(and some younger) collected in one place
waiting, particularly, but not for
me, mother and father there, too, and others
close, close as burrowing
under skin, all in the graveyard
assembled, done for, the world they
used to wield, have trouble and joy
in, gone
the child in me that could not become
was not ready for others to go,
to go on into change, blessings and
horrors, but stands there by the road
where the mishap occurred, crying out for
help, come and fix this or we
can’t get by, but the great ones who
were to return, they could not or did
not hear and went on in a flurry and
now, I say in the graveyard, here
lies the flurry, now it can’t come
back with help or helpful asides, now
we all buy the bitter
incompletions, pick up the knots of
horror, silently raving, and go on
crashing into empty ends not
completions, not rondures the fullness
has come into and spent itself from
I stand on the stump
of a child, whether myself
or my little brother who died, and
yell as far as I can, I cannot leave this place, for
for me it is the dearest and the worst,
it is life nearest to life which is
life lost: it is my place where
I must stand and fail,
calling attention with tears
to the branches not lofting
boughs into space, to the barren
air that holds the world that was my world
though the incompletions
(& completions) burn out
standing in the flash high-burn
momentary structure of ash, still it
is a picture-book, letter-perfect
Easter morning: I have been for a
walk: the wind is tranquil: the brook
works without flashing in an abundant
tranquility: the birds are lively with
voice: I saw something I had
never seen before: two great birds,
maybe eagles, blackwinged, whitenecked
and –headed, came from the south oaring
the great wings steadily; they went
directly over me, high up, and kept on
due north: but then one bird,
the one behind, veered a little to the
left and the other bird kept on seeming
not to notice for a minute: the first
began to circle as if looking for
something, coasting, resting its wings
on the down side of some of the circles:
the other bird came back and they both
circled, looking perhaps for a draft;
they turned a few more times, possibly
rising—at least, clearly resting—
then flew on falling into distance till
they broke across the local bush and
trees: it was a sight of bountiful
majesty and integrity: the having
patterns and routes, breaking
from them to explore other patterns or
better ways to routes, and then the
return: a dance sacred as the sap in
the trees, permanent in its descriptions
as the ripples round the brook’s
ripplestone: fresh as this particular
flood of burn breaking across us now
from the sun.
Analysis of Easter Morning
“Easter Morning” is a poem about a man who is remembering someone or something he lost. It could be a dream he never got to follow, or even someone he loved who died, like a little brother.
He visits a graveyard often, thinking about the past. He remembers people who were kind to him when he was young—like his aunts, uncles, teachers, and parents. But now, all those people have passed away. He feels sad and a little stuck in time, like he never got to move on.
But then something beautiful happens.
It’s Easter morning, and he goes outside. He sees two big birds flying in the sky, soaring peacefully. One bird moves away, then comes back, and they continue flying together. This makes him feel better. Nature shows him that even if life is hard, there is still peace, beauty, and hope all around us.
Lessons from Easter Morning
- It’s okay to feel sad. The speaker is feeling a deep sadness. The poem shows that it’s normal to feel that way, especially when we remember people or dreams we’ve lost.
- We can find comfort in nature. The birds flying, the brook flowing, the peaceful morning—all these remind the speaker that life still has beauty and meaning.
- Easter reminds us of new beginnings. Even though the poem talks about sadness, Easter morning brings hope. It’s a symbol that things can get better and new life can begin, even after loss.
5. “The Coming” by R. S. Thomas
Poem
The Coming
And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many people
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.
Analysis of The Coming
“The Coming” by R. S. Thomas paints a picture of a world that is in need of help, filled with suffering and longing for hope. It explores the idea of divine compassion, human suffering, and the desire for salvation.
The poem begins with God holding a “small globe,” which is a metaphor for Earth. God shows this to His son (Jesus), asking Him to look at it. The son gazes at the Earth from a distance, seeing a world filled with suffering.
As the son looks at the Earth, he sees a “scorched land,” which suggests that the world is burning, decaying, or in pain. The imagery of “crusted buildings” and a “bright serpent” (which symbolise evil and temptation) paints a picture of a world that is broken and corrupt. There’s also a river “radiant with slime,” suggesting that even nature has been polluted.
The son sees a “bare tree” on a hill, which represents a place of emptiness, with no leaves or life. The people in the poem are “holding out their thin arms” to this tree, as if waiting for something—perhaps hope, growth, or salvation. They long for a time when things were better, symbolised by the “vanished April.”
Finally, the son (Jesus) looks at the suffering people and says, “Let me go there.” This shows his compassion and willingness to come down to Earth to help the people who are waiting for salvation.
In summary, this poem is representative of the situation and circumstance that warranted the coming of Jesus Christ to Earth.
Lessons from The Coming
- The poem describes a world in trouble. It’s not just about physical suffering, but also spiritual emptiness. The world feels like a place that has lost hope, represented by the “bare tree” and “scorched land.”
- The son (Jesus) sees the suffering and wants to help. His desire to “go there” shows that he is not distant or uncaring. Instead, he is willing to come to Earth to help those in need.
- The people in the poem are waiting for salvation and hope to return. They long for a better world and a way out of their suffering.
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