Easter

George HerbertSeventeenth-century EnglishPoem

I GOT me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.

Yet though my flowers be lost, they say
A heart can never come too late;
Teach it to sing Thy praise this day.
And then this day my life shall date.

Cultural reading

Reading the poem

The speaker gathers flowers and boughs to strew the Lord's way but finds Him already risen before daybreak with His own sweets, and concludes that a heart, though late, can still make this day the date of his life.

Language notes

Text and edition

The English text follows the fixed historical witness in The Oxford Book of English Verse; no modern third-party translation is included.