Good Friday
Good Friday
Original Text
A. J. M. Smith, The Complete Poems, ed. Brian Trehearne
(London, Ontario: Canadian Poetry Press, 2007): 144.
1This day upon the bitter tree
2Died one who had he willed
3Could have dried up the wide sea
4 And the wind stilled,
5And when at the ninth hour
6He surrenderèd the ghost
7His face was faded flower,
8 Drooping and lost.
9Who then was not afraid?
10Targeted, heart and eye,
11Struck, as with darts, by godhead
12 In human agony.
13For him, who with a cry
14Could shatter if he willed
15The sea and earth and sky
16 And them re-build,
17Who chose amid the tumult
18Of the darkening sky
19A chivalry more difficult—
20 As man to die,
21What answering meed of love
22Can this frail flesh return
23That is not all unworthy of
24 The god I mourn?
Publication Start Year
1929
Publication Notes
Canadian Mercury
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form
Special Copyright
Copyright © the estate of A.J.M. Smith. Included
with the generous permission of William Toye, his literary executor.