Poem by Ernest Charles Jones

Easter Hymn

Crucified! crucified every morn!
Beaten, and scourged and crowned with thorn!
Scorned, and spat on, and drenched with gall:
Brothers! how long shall we hear their thrall?
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John!
                    Answer the question, and bear it on.

Earthquake revelled, and darkness fell.
To show 'twas the time of the kings of hell,
But the veil is rent, they hung so high,
To hide their sins from the people's eye.
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John!
                    Hear ye the tidings, and bear them on.

Like royal robes on the King of Jews,
Were mocked with sights that we may not use:
Our limbs they spare—our hearts they break:
For they need the former their gold to make.
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John!
                    Swell the sad burden, kind bear it on.

Blood and water-aye! blond and tears—
Track our path down the stream of years.
The people alone have been crucified,
But the thieves are still wanting on either side.
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John!
                    Give ye the signal, and bear it on.

For a sabbath shall come—but NOT of rest!
When the rich shall be punished—the poor redressed,
And from hamlet to hamlet—from town to town,
The church bells shall ring till the proud fall down.
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John.
                    Hear ye the warning, and bear it on.

The Pharisees revel o'er manor and loom;
We'll blow them a blast on the trump of doom;
It shall wake the dead nations from land to land,
For the resurrection is near at hand.
    Chorus:—Mary and Magdalen!  Peter and John!
                    Ring the loud summons, and bear it on!

1. Hymn for Lammas Day
2. Too Soon
3. The Life of a Flower
4. The Painter of Florence
5. The Silent Cell

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