Mary Magdalene and the Other Maries

OUR Master lies asleep and at rest:
His Heart has ceased to bleed, His Eye to weep:
The sun ashamed has dropped down in the west:
Our Master lies asleep.

Now we are they who weep, and trembling keep
Vigil, With wrung heart in a sighing breast,
While slow time creeps, and slow shadows creep.

Renew Thy youth as eagle from the nest;
O Master who has sown, arise to reap:
No cock-crow yet: no flush on eastern crest:
Our Master lies asleep.

--Christina Rosetti (1830-1894), English poet and supporter of the Oxford Movement



Image: Mary Magdalene Approaches the Tomb, by Gian Girolamo Savoldo.