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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EASTER by CHARLES WILLIAMS

First Line: WAS THERE NOT ONE, WHEN IN THE UPPER ROOM
Last Line: EVEN AS AROUND THEM FELL THE GREETING, 'PEACE'?
Subject(s): CATHOLICS - UNITED STATES; EASTER; HOLIDAYS; PEACE; RELIGION; THE RESURRECTION; THEOLOGY;

WAS there not one, when in the upper room
The women broke crying, 'He is gone—he is gone,'
Who felt beneath a blast of heavier doom
His soul go down? Not Peter, royal John,
Admirable Thomas, but perhaps unknown
Bartholomew, Judas (not Iscariot),
Who at the tale of the Rolling of the Stone
Knew himself chosen, by a dreadful lot,
To grace and strife and immortality,
And blessed but perpetual martyrdom,
Uttered one last lost cry, 'Ah, not to me!'
Even as from air he saw the Arisen come,
Nor felt within him the black terror cease
Even as around them fell the greeting, 'Peace'?



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