On Easter Day
WE light the Easter fire, and the Easter lamps we trim,And lilies rear their chaliced cups in churches rich and dim,And chapel low and Minster high the same triumphant strainsIn city and in village raise, and on the lonely plains.
“Life” is the strain, and “endless life” the chiming bells repeat,—A word of victory over death, a word of promise sweet;And as the great good clasps the less, the sun a myriad rays,So do a hundred thoughts of joy cling round our Easter days.
And one, which seems at times the best and dearest of them all,Is this: that all the many dead in ages past recall,With the friends who died so long ago that memory seeks in vainTo call the vanished faces back, and make them live again;
And those so lately gone from us that still they seem to beBeside our path, beside our board, in viewless company,—A light for all our weary hours, a glory by the way,—All, all the dead, the near, the far, take part in Easter day!
They share the life we hope to share, as once they shared in this;They hold in fast possession our heritage of bliss.Theirs is the sure, near Presence toward which we reach and strain;On Easter day, on Easter day, we all are one again.
Oh, fairest of the fair, high thoughts that light the Easter dawn!Oh, sweet and true companionship which cannot be withdrawn!“The Lord is risen!” sealed lips repeat out of the shadows dim;“The Lord is risen,” we answer back, “and all shall rise in him!”
Words in this poem
- chaliced a.
- Having a calyx or cup; cupshaped.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- viewless a.
- Not perceivable by the eye; invisible; unseen.
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Easter Day 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, On Easter Day, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/on-easter-day.html, id L23444.
Form and metre
On Easter Day is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABB trimA · dimA · strainsB · plainsB
- 2 AABB repeatA · sweetA · raysB · daysB
- 3 AABB allA · recallA · vainB · againB
- 4 --AA be · company · wayA · dayA
- 5 AABB thisA · blissA · strainB · againB
- 6 AABB dawnA · withdrawnA · dimB · himB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WE light the Easter fire, and the Easter lamps we trim, | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And lilies rear their chaliced cups in churches rich and dim, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| And chapel low and Minster high the same triumphant strains | 14 | ·/˘··/˘···˘/˘· |
| In city and in village raise, and on the lonely plains. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| “Life” is the strain, and “endless life” the chiming bells repeat,— | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| A word of victory over death, a word of promise sweet; | 14 | ···/˘˘·····/˘· |
| And as the great good clasps the less, the sun a myriad rays, | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| So do a hundred thoughts of joy cling round our Easter days. | 14 | ···/˘·····//˘· |
| And one, which seems at times the best and dearest of them all, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| Is this: that all the many dead in ages past recall, | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| With the friends who died so long ago that memory seeks in vain | 15 | ·······˘/·/˘··· |
| To call the vanished faces back, and make them live again; | 14 | ···/˘/˘·····˘/ |
| And those so lately gone from us that still they seem to be | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| Beside our path, beside our board, in viewless company,— | 15 | ·//··//˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| A light for all our weary hours, a glory by the way,— | 14 | ····//˘/·/˘··· |
| All, all the dead, the near, the far, take part in Easter day! | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| They share the life we hope to share, as once they shared in this; | 14 | ·············· |
| They hold in fast possession our heritage of bliss. | 14 | ····˘/˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| Theirs is the sure, near Presence toward which we reach and strain; | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| On Easter day, on Easter day, we all are one again. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘·····˘/ |
| Oh, fairest of the fair, high thoughts that light the Easter dawn! | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| Oh, sweet and true companionship which cannot be withdrawn! | 14 | ····˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| “The Lord is risen!” sealed lips repeat out of the shadows dim; | 15 | ···/˘··˘/···/·· |
| “The Lord is risen,” we answer back, “and all shall rise in him!” | 15 | ···/˘·/˘······· |
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.