Palm Sunday
THE multitude was crowding all the way,But yesterday,To see and touch the Lord as he rode by,To catch his eye,Or at the very least a palm-branch flingUpon the pathway of the chosen King.
Faded and dry those palms lie in the sun,Witherèd each one;Those glad, rejoicing shouters presentlyWill flock to see,With never thought of pity or of loss,The King of Glory on his cruel cross.
Lord, we would fain some little palm-branch layUpon thy way;But we have nothing fair enough or sweetFor holy feetTo tread, nor dare our sin-stained garments flingUpon the road where rides the Righteous King.
Yet thou, all-gracious One, didst not refuseThose fickle Jews;And even such worthless leaves as we may cull,Faded and dull,Thou wilt endure and pardon and receive,Because thou knowest we have naught else to give.So, Lord, our stubborn wills we first will break,
If thou wilt take;And next our selfishness, and then our pride,—And what beside?Our hearts, Lord, poor and fruitless though they be,And quick to change, and nothing worth to see.
If but the foldings of thy garment’s hemShall shadow them,These worthless leaves which we have brought and strewedAlong thy roadShall be raised up and made divinely sweet,And fit to lie beneath thy gracious feet.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- presently adv.
- At present; at this time; now.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- cull v. t.
- To separate, select, or pick out; to choose and gather or collect; as, to cuil flowers. [OE., OF. cuillir, coillir, F.cueillir, to gather, pluck, pick, fr. L. colligere. See Coil, v. t., and cf. Collect.]
- fruitless a.
- Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring; as, a fruitless tree or shrub; a fruitless marriage.
- 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
Palm Sunday 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, Palm Sunday, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/palm-sunday.html, id L23500.
Form and metre
Palm Sunday is 36 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCC wayA · yesterdayA · byB · eyeB · flingC · kingC
- 2 AA--BB sunA · oneA · presently · see · lossB · crossB
- 3 AABBCC layA · wayA · sweetB · feetB · flingC · kingC
- 4 AABB--- refuseA · jewsA · cullB · dullB · receive · give · break
- 5 -AABB take · prideA · besideA · beB · seeB
- 6 AA--BB hemA · themA · strewed · road · sweetB · feetB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE multitude was crowding all the way, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| But yesterday, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To see and touch the Lord as he rode by, | 10 | ·········· |
| To catch his eye, | 4 | ···· |
| Or at the very least a palm-branch fling | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Upon the pathway of the chosen King. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Faded and dry those palms lie in the sun, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Witherèd each one; | 4 | ···· |
| Those glad, rejoicing shouters presently | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Will flock to see, | 4 | ···· |
| With never thought of pity or of loss, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The King of Glory on his cruel cross. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Lord, we would fain some little palm-branch lay | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon thy way; | 4 | ···· |
| But we have nothing fair enough or sweet | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| For holy feet | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To tread, nor dare our sin-stained garments fling | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| Upon the road where rides the Righteous King. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yet thou, all-gracious One, didst not refuse | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Those fickle Jews; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And even such worthless leaves as we may cull, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Faded and dull, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Thou wilt endure and pardon and receive, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Because thou knowest we have naught else to give. | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| So, Lord, our stubborn wills we first will break, | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| If thou wilt take; | 4 | ···· |
| And next our selfishness, and then our pride,— | 10 | ··//˘˘··/· |
| And what beside? | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Our hearts, Lord, poor and fruitless though they be, | 10 | /····/˘··· |
| And quick to change, and nothing worth to see. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If but the foldings of thy garment’s hem | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Shall shadow them, | 4 | ·/·· |
| These worthless leaves which we have brought and strewed | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Along thy road | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Shall be raised up and made divinely sweet, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And fit to lie beneath thy gracious feet. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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