Easter Road
Under the cloud of world-wide war,While earth is drenched with sorrow,I have no heart for idle merrymaking,Or for the fashioning of glad raiment.I will retrace the divine footmarks,On the Road of the first Easter.
Down through the valley of utter darknessDripping with blood and tears;Over the hill of the skull, the little hill of great anguish,The ambuscade of Death.Into the no-man's-land of HadesBearing despatches of hope to spirits in prison,Mortally stricken and triumphantWent the faithful Captain of Salvation.
Then upward, swiftly upward,--Victory, liberty, glory,The feet that were wounded walked in the tranquil garden,Bathed in dew and the light of deathless dawn.
O my soul, my comrades, soldiers of freedom,Follow the pathway of Easter, for there is no other,Follow it through to peace, yea, follow it fighting.This Armageddon is not darker than Calvary.The day will break when the Dragon is vanquished;He that exalteth himself as God shall be cast down,And the Lords of war shall fall,And the long, long terror be ended,Victory, justice, peace enduring!They that die in this cause shall live forever,And they that live shall never die,They shall rejoice together in the Easter of a new world.
Words in this poem
- retrace v. t.
- To trace back, as a line. [Pref. re- + trace: cf. F. retracer. Cf. Retract.]
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- ambuscade n.
- A lying in a wood, concealed, for the purpose of attacking an enemy by surprise. Hence: A lying in wait, and concealed in any situation, for a like purpose; a snare laid for an enemy; an ambush. [F. embuscade, fr. It. imboscata, or Sp. emboscada, fr. emboscar to ambush, fr. LL. imboscare. See Ambush, v. t.]
- mortally adv.
- In a mortal manner; so as to cause death; as, mortally wounded.
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- 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.]
- 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
Easter Road is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Easter Road, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/easter-road.html, id L22948.
Form and metre
Easter Road is 30 lines in 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See 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.
- 3 --AA upward · glory · gardenA · dawnA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Under the cloud of world-wide war, | 8 | ········ |
| While earth is drenched with sorrow, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I have no heart for idle merrymaking, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Or for the fashioning of glad raiment. | 10 | ···/˘˘··/˘ |
| I will retrace the divine footmarks, | 9 | ··˘/·˘/·· |
| On the Road of the first Easter. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Down through the valley of utter darkness | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Dripping with blood and tears; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Over the hill of the skull, the little hill of great anguish, | 14 | ·······/˘···/˘ |
| The ambuscade of Death. | 6 | ······ |
| Into the no-man's-land of Hades | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Bearing despatches of hope to spirits in prison, | 13 | /˘······/˘·/˘ |
| Mortally stricken and triumphant | 9 | /˘˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Went the faithful Captain of Salvation. | 10 | ··/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Then upward, swiftly upward,-- | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Victory, liberty, glory, | 8 | /˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
| The feet that were wounded walked in the tranquil garden, | 13 | ····/˘···/˘/˘ |
| Bathed in dew and the light of deathless dawn. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| O my soul, my comrades, soldiers of freedom, | 11 | ····/·/˘·/˘ |
| Follow the pathway of Easter, for there is no other, | 14 | /˘·/··/˘····/˘ |
| Follow it through to peace, yea, follow it fighting. | 12 | /˘·····/˘·/˘ |
| This Armageddon is not darker than Calvary. | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| The day will break when the Dragon is vanquished; | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| He that exalteth himself as God shall be cast down, | 13 | ··˘/˘˘/······ |
| And the Lords of war shall fall, | 7 | ······· |
| And the long, long terror be ended, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Victory, justice, peace enduring! | 9 | /˘˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| They that die in this cause shall live forever, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And they that live shall never die, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They shall rejoice together in the Easter of a new world. | 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.