The Easter Flower

Words: Bishop Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

Source: Phillips Brooks, Christmas Songs and Easter Carols (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1903).

O Garden by the City gate
    Where seeds of glowers are sown,
What seed is this they bring in state
    With grief and sob and moan?

They hide it in the silent ground,
    And sadly turn away,
The dark earth closes it around
    Beneath the closing day.

And there its patient rest it takes,
    With folded life and power,
Till, when the third bright morning breaks,
    Behold it bursts to flower!

And ever since the new-made sun
    Turned Eden's slopes to green,
Of all Earth's gardens not in one
    So fair a flower was seen.

It glows with faith and charity,
    With love for man and God,
In it a hope which cannot die
    Springs from the bursting clod.

A Rose whose heart is mystic Love,
    Whose fragrance fills the Earth,
While happy Heaven which bends above
    Sings at the blessed birth.

O Risen Christ! O Easter Flower!
    How dear Thy Grace has grown!
From East to West, with loving power,
    Make all the world Thine own.

And make our hearts Thy gardens. Bloom
    In them, dear Lord, and be
Their life of life till Life gives room
    To Immortality!

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