The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations/Easter
For works with similar titles, see Easter.
¶ Easter.
RIse heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praiseWithout delayes,Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewiseWith 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 partWith all thy art.The crosse taught all wood to resound his name,Who bore the same.His stretched sinews taught all strings, what keyIs best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a songPleasant and long:Or, since all musick is but three parts viedAnd 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 Sunne arising in the East,Though he give light, and th' East perfume;If they should offer to contestWith thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,Though many sunnes to shine endeavour?We count three hundred, but we misse:There is but one, and that one ever.