Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By Richard Crashaw (1613?–1640)

Christ when He died


CHRIST when He died
Deceived the cross,
And on Death’s side
Threw all the loss.
The captive world awaked and found	5
The prisoners loose, the jailer bound.

O dear and sweet dispute
’Twixt Death’s and Love’s far different fruit,
Different as far
As antidotes and poisons are:	10

By the first fatal tree
Both Life and Liberty
Were sold and slain;
By this they both look up and live again.

O strange mysterious strife	15
Of open death and hidden life!
When on the cross my King did bleed,
Life seem’d to die, Death died indeed.