An Easter Song
A SONG of sunshine through the rain,Of spring across the snow,A balm to heal the hurts of pain,A peace surpassing woe.Lift up your heads, ye sorrowing ones,And be ye glad of heart,For Calvary and Easter Day,Earth’s saddest day and gladdest day,Were just one day apart!
With shudder of despair and lossThe world’s deep heart was wrung,As lifted high upon his crossThe Lord of Glory hung,When rocks were rent, and ghostly formsStole forth in street and mart;But Calvary and Easter Day,Earth’s blackest day and whitest day,Were just one day apart!
No hint or whisper stirred the airTo tell what joy should be;The sad disciples, grieving there,Nor help nor hope could see.Yet all the while the glad, near sunMade ready its swift dart.And Calvary and Easter Day,The darkest day and brightest day,Were just one day apart!
Oh, when the strife of tongues is loud,And the heart of hope beats low,When the prophets prophesy of ill,And the mourners come and go,In this sure thought let us abide,And keep and stay our heart,—That Calvary and Easter Day,Earth’s heaviest day and happiest day,Were but one day apart!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- calvary n.
- The place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii. 33. [L. calvaria a bare skull, fr. calva the scalp without hair. fr. calvus bald; cf. F. calvaire.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Easter Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, An Easter Song, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/an-easter-song.html, id L23421.
Form and metre
An Easter Song is 36 lines in 4 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB-CDDC rainA · snowB · painA · woeB · ones · heartC · dayD · dayD · apartC
- 2 ABAB-CDDC lossA · wrungB · crossA · hungB · forms · martC · dayD · dayD · apartC
- 3 ABAB-CDDC airA · beB · thereA · seeB · sun · dartC · dayD · dayD · apartC
- 4 -A-A-BCCB loud · lowA · ill · goA · abide · heartB · dayC · dayC · apartB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A SONG of sunshine through the rain, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Of spring across the snow, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| A balm to heal the hurts of pain, | 8 | ········ |
| A peace surpassing woe. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Lift up your heads, ye sorrowing ones, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And be ye glad of heart, | 6 | ······ |
| For Calvary and Easter Day, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Earth’s saddest day and gladdest day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were just one day apart! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| With shudder of despair and loss | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| The world’s deep heart was wrung, | 6 | ······ |
| As lifted high upon his cross | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Lord of Glory hung, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| When rocks were rent, and ghostly forms | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Stole forth in street and mart; | 6 | ······ |
| But Calvary and Easter Day, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Earth’s blackest day and whitest day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were just one day apart! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| No hint or whisper stirred the air | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To tell what joy should be; | 6 | ······ |
| The sad disciples, grieving there, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Nor help nor hope could see. | 6 | ······ |
| Yet all the while the glad, near sun | 8 | ········ |
| Made ready its swift dart. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And Calvary and Easter Day, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| The darkest day and brightest day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were just one day apart! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Oh, when the strife of tongues is loud, | 8 | ········ |
| And the heart of hope beats low, | 7 | ······· |
| When the prophets prophesy of ill, | 9 | ··/˘/˘˘·· |
| And the mourners come and go, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In this sure thought let us abide, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And keep and stay our heart,— | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That Calvary and Easter Day, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Earth’s heaviest day and happiest day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were but one day apart! | 6 | ····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.