"On the Death of Anne Brontë" by Charlotte Brontë

Read this elegy by English writer Charlotte Bronte, who was born on this day in 1816: On the Death of Anne Brontë by Charlotte Brontë

English writer Anne Bronte (1820-1849) was one of Charlotte's sisters. Her other sister was English writer Emily Bronte (1818-1848).

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

"The Lord Is My Shepherd" : The King James Bible

"'Though thou walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,

I will be with thee.'"

So wrote American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886),

as if she were quoting the Lord, "my shepherd."

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

A Psalm of David

from the Bible: Psalm 23 (King James Version)

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

For his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

For thou art with me;

Thy rod and thy staff

They comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me

In the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil;

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

For ever.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene : The Bible

In the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, John 20:14 says that on the first day of the week (the Day of Resurrection) Mary Magdalene "turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus." As my mother Evelyn M. Gilmer (1923-2016) wrote of Mary Magdalene,

     She looked at Christ with earthly eyes,
     And, so, she failed to recognize
        The risen Lord.


JESUS APPEARS TO MARY MAGDALENE
from the Bible: John 20:11-18 (Revised Standard Version)

     But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

     "Woman, why are you weeping?
     Whom do you seek?"

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her,

     "Do not hold me,
     For I have not yet ascended to the Father;
     But go to my brethren and say to them,
     I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
     To my God and your God."

Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Holy Saturday, the Day of Silence

THE GUARD AT THE TOMB
from the Bible: Matthew 27:62-66 (King James Version)

     Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, 'After three days I will rise again.' Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, 'He is risen from the dead': so the last error shall be worse than the first." Pilate said unto them, "Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can." So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.


UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE
A hymn (1874) by Robert Lowry

Low in the grave he lay,
   Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
   Jesus my Lord!

Refrain:
Up from the grave he arose,
With a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch his bed,
   Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead,
   Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Death cannot keep its prey,
   Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away,
   Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

"Good Friday" by Christina G. Rossetti : Christ in Poetry

GOOD FRIDAY
by Christina G. Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
   That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
   To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,

And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
   Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
   Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
   Which hid their faces in a starless sky.
   A horror of great darkness at broad noon --
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er
   But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
   Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.


Source: Christ in Poetry (1952), an anthology compiled and edited by Thomas Curtis Clark and Hazel Davis Clark

Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894)

English poet

"Wednesday in Holy Week" by Christina G. Rossetti : Christ in Poetry

WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
by Christina G. Rossetti

Man's life is death. Yet Christ endured to live
   Preaching and teaching, toiling to and fro,
Few men accepting what he yearned to give,
   Few men with eyes to know
   His face, that Face of Love he stooped to show.

Man's death is life. For Christ endured to die
   In slow unuttered weariness of pain,
A curse and an astonishment, passed by,
   Pointed at, mocked again
   By men for whom he shed his blood -- in vain?


Source: Christ in Poetry (1952), an anthology compiled and edited by Thomas Curtis Clark and Hazel Davis Clark

Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894)

English poet