Easter / Edmund Spenser

from Amoretti:

LXVIII

Most glorious Lord of lyfe that on this day
     didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;
     and having harow'd hell didst bring away
     captivity thence captive us to win:
This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin,
     and grant that we, for whom thou diddest dye
     being with Thy deare blood clene washt from sin,
     may live for ever in felicity:
And that Thy love we weighing worthily,
     may likewise love thee for the same againe;
     and for Thy sake that all lyke deare didst buy,
     with love may one another entertayne.
So let us love, deare Love, lyke as we ought,
     love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

~~
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
from Amoretti and Epithalamion, 1595

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Edmund Spenser biography