Easter Music / Margaret Deland (3 poems)

Easter Music

Jonquils

Blow, golden trumpets, sweet and clear,
Blow soft upon the perfumed air;
     Bid the sad earth to join your song,
     "To Christ does victory belong!"

Oh, let the winds your message bear
To every heart of grief and care;
     Sound through the world the joyful lay,
     "Our Christ has conquered Death to-day /"

On cloudy wings let glad words fly
Through the soft blue of echoing sky :
     Ring out, O trumpets, sweet and clear,
     "Through Death immortal Life is here!"


To the Child of the Sistine Madonna

Through all the mists of years,
     One smiling baby face
Forever young appears,
     Aglow with childish grace!

O questioning sweet eyes,
     O head all golden brown,
Above thee softly lies
     The shadow of a crown!


The Message of the Lilies 

O quickening life of Easter day,
     O burst of snowy bloom :
"The Lord has risen," Lilies say,
     In gush of sweet perfume!

"Oh, lift your heads and face the sky,
     Oh, watch the brightening dawn;
For Light, and Life, and Hope are nigh,
     And Death's dark night has gone!

"Up! up! to the soft shining blue,
     The freshening wind and sun;
All Nature thrills, all life is new,
     Christ's victory is won!"

~~

Margaret Deland (1857-1945)

from The Old Garden, and other verses, 1889

[Poems are in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Margaret Deland biography