Top 10 Easter Poems for Passion Week

Easter is a poetic time for many reasons. As a season, it’s the time when (to quote Joyce Kilmer),

“The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.”

For Christians, it’s more than just the start of spring. It is the season where we remember the greatest story over told: Jesus’ sacrifice for sin on the cross, followed by his victory over death as he exited his grave.

The story is familiar but somehow always compelling: Jesus Christ enters Jerusalem, full of pomp and circumstance. Then he shocks the people and their leaders with his teachings about generosity over properness and condemnations of hypocritical authorities… yet he never steps into the easy role of a revolutionary overthrowing the political leaders. After a friend agrees to betray him, Jesus holds the Last Supper with his disciples and waits for his accusers in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is then arrested and killed on the cross… only to rise three days later.

This story is not only good news for our sinful souls; it is essentially poetic news. That God would come down in human form, live among humans, and then die for them is a shocking message that provides a beautiful image of God’s love and sovereignty. Malcolm Muggeridge calls the Passion of the Christ “that powerhouse of love and creativity.” Frederick Buechner and others have seen the Easter story as the best tragedy (because Jesus’ death was terrible), the best comedy (because it tricked the devil), and the best fairytale (because it speaks to the wonder and surprising twists that all fairytales try to capture, but it actually happened).

These 10 Easter poems range from classic hymns to ancient prayers to Victorian poems, highlighting different aspects of this poetic holiday where we remember Christ’s resurrection.

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1. The Paschal Homily of John Chrysostom

The Paschal Homily is a sermon by church father John Chrysostom. While you can find versions of the text that set it all in lines like a poem, the ending really becomes a poem with its refrain about Christ’s return from the dead.

“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen, and life reigns.
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

2. “Angels Roll the Rock Away” by Thomas Scott

This 1769 hymn still reads well today and reminds us of that climactic Easter moment: the angels rolling the stone cover from the tomb, showing that Christ had risen.

“Angels, roll the rock away;
Death yield up thy mighty prey!
See, the Savior leaves the tomb,
Glowing in immortal bloom.

Saints on earth, lift up your eyes,
Now to glory see Him rise
In long triumph thro’ the sky,
Up to waiting worlds on high.

Heav’n unfolds its portals wide;
Mighty Conqueror! thro’ them ride;
King of glory! mount Thy throne,
Boundless empire is Thine Own.”

3. “Easter” by George Herbert

This poem is excerpted from “The Temple,” published in 1633. It reflects on Christ’s rising from the dead and how we also rise from the dead in Christ.

“Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name,
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or, since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied,
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.

I got me flowers to straw thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.

The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th’ East perfume;
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavor?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.”

4. The Prayer of St. Hippolytus of Rome

Since it doesn’t rhyme, this early church prayer may be more of an ode than a poem. However, its repeated words “Christ is risen” give it a kind of rhythm, not unlike the best hymns.

“Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever”

5. “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” by Robert Lowry

There are a lot of great hymns out there about Easter’s events and message, but this 1876 hymn about Christ's blood shed at Easter seems to keep coming back into fashion.

“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon this I see:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing this my plea:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my hope and peace:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness:
nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

6. “Easter” by Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser may be best remembered for his epic poem The Faerie Queen, but he also wrote many shorter poems. This poem urges us to carry the truth of Christ’s love and resurrection and apply it—loving others as Christ’s followers.

“Most glorious Lord of Life! that, on this day,
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin;
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin;
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washt from sin,
May live for ever in felicity!

And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again;
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain!
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
—Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.”

7. “Easter Hymn” by A.E. Housman

Housman was a Victorian scholar specializing in Latin but had a vibrant side career as a poet. “Easter Hymn” is unusual because Housman wasn’t religious, yet it captures why Christ rising from the tomb is such a shocking idea better than many poems by religious writers do. It also combines a meditation on Christ’s resurrection with a plea: may he bring aid now if Christ is alive today.

“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.

But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,
At the right hand of majesty on high
You sit, and sitting so remember yet
Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,
Your cross and passion and the life you gave,
Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.”

8. “Easter Morning” by Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti wrote many poems, at least two of which (“Easter Carol” and “Easter Morning”) mention the Easter season. “Easter Morning” reflects how all nature seems to be rejoicing with us as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

“The sun arises from the sea,
And all around his rays is flinging,
The flowers are opening on the lea,
The merry birds are singing.

The summer breeze is rustling past,
Sweet scents are gathering around it,
The rivulet is flowing fast,
Beside the banks that bound it.

All nature seemeth to rejoice,
In the returning summer weather;
Let us with nature raise our voice,
And harmonize together.

But not alone for summer skies
Shall praise unto our God be given:
This day our Saviour did arise,
And oped the gate of heaven.

To sinful man, if only he
His errings will confess with sorrow,
Then, after earth’s night-misery,
Shall dawn a glorious morrow:

A blissful bright eternity
Bought by the rising of the Giver,
To Whom all praise, all honor be,
For ever and for ever.”

9. “The Way of the Cross Leads Home” by Jesse Brown Pounds

This hymn written in 1906 can be sung (with multiple people joining in for the chorus and refrain “leads home”) or read like we read a psalm (taking extra time to reflect on the chorus and refrain sections).

“I must needs go home by the way of the cross,
There’s no other way but this;
I shall ne’er get sight of the gates of light,
If the way of the cross I miss.
The way of the cross leads home, (leads home,)
The way of the cross leads home; (leads home;)
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of the cross leads home.

I must needs go on in the blood-sprinkled way,
The path that the Savior trod,
If I ever climb to the heights sublime,
Where the soul is at home with God.
The way of the cross leads home, (leads home,)
The way of the cross leads home; (leads home;)
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of the cross leads home.

Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it nevermore;
For the Lord says, “Come,” and I seek my home
Where He waits at the open door.
The way of the cross leads home, (leads home,)
The way of the cross leads home; (leads home;)
It is sweet to know as I onward go,
The way of the cross leads home.”

10. “Easter Week” by Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley was a Victorian English priest who did many things, from campaigning for social reforms to writing fantasy novels. “Easter Week” is one of his many poems and songs, exploring the idea that the earth is regenerated just as Christ regenerated after his death.

“See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.

You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring—
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.”