Easter verse written in the midst of the Great War by Anglican Lilian Leveridge from her debut collection Over the Hills of Home and Other Poems (Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1918).
THE EASTER WINDS
The little winds of dawning,
Long centuries ago,
Went straying in a garden
With bursting buds aglow.
A wondrous tale they whispered
Of One Who loved, Who died
For men whose hatred pierced Him
In hands and feet and side.
Bright angels told His story:
The winds caught up the song;
On viewless wings forever
They bear the strain along.
The flowers await His coming;
For love of Him they bloom—
The fadeless Rose of Sharon.
That blossomed from the tomb.
O little winds of Easter
That blow amid the hills,
With lily perfume laden
And breath of daffodils.
Go, blow across the ocean.
And carry to "our boys,"
Our truest and our dearest,
A gift of Easter joys—
The sweetness of the blossoms,
The music of the bells,
That, hour by hour unwearied,
The glad evangel tells—
Of life that blooms unfading,
Of love that cannot die,
Of rest and peace abiding
Beyond our shrouding sky.
O viewless Easter angels
That wander round the world,
Where, reeking red with carnage,
The bolts of hate are hurled,
Where, rank on rank, the crosses
Stand silent on the hill,
Go, plant the amaryllis.
The rose, the daflfodil.
Then all the winds of Easter
Shall bear upon their wings
To wounded hearts the essence
Of all life's sweetest things.
"The Lord is risen!" shall echo
From shore to farthest shore,
And Love shall reign eternal,
And pain shall be no more.
Related posts:
Easter Verse by Ethel Ursula Foran
'Easter Dawn' by Jean Blewett
'The Easter Parade, 1915' by Robert Stanley Weir
'Easter Dawn' by Jean Blewett
'The Easter Parade, 1915' by Robert Stanley Weir
