Poems for Good Friday

Updated: April 4, 2014

The poems below are in somewhat random order.  I’ll probably work to reorganize them soon.  But in the meantime, here’s a good list of poems for Good Friday.  I’ve also created a separate compilation of poems for Holy Week.

Note: for any of the entries from the Rev’d Patrick Comerford’s blog, you generally have to scroll down within the entry to find the poem, as each of his Lenten Poetry series also included background about the poet and reflection on the themes of the poem.

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The Cross, by John Donne

John Keble, Good Friday

‘Holy Cross,’ by Sir Shane Leslie

‘East Coker’ (1943), by TS Eliot

Good Friday, by George Herbert

‘Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward,’ by John Donne [Lent 2012];  See also here for addtional reflections on this poem [Lent 2013]

Beneath Thy Cross, by Christina Rossetti

‘I see His Blood Upon the Rose,’ by Joseph Mary Plunkett

The Passion, by George Herbert

The Agony, by George Herbert

The Agony, George Herbert

The Sacrifice, (Was Ever Grief Like Mine) George Herbert

How shall I measure out thy bloud?, George Herbert

For I the Lord have slain (In Evil Long I Took Delight), John Newton

The Carpenter’s Son, A. E. Housman

All in an April Evening by Katharine Tynan

It is a thing most wonderful, by William Walsham How

Barnfloor and Winepress, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

I saw the Sun at Midnight, by Joseph Mary Plunkett

Christine F. Nordquist “Eden Inversed”

Emily Polis Gibson:  We Must Choose

Emily Polis Gibson:  The Bud of the Wood

Emily Polis Gibson: Rather Be a Hammer

Christians and Pagans, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in July 1944

Indifference, by GA Studdert Kennedy

Battlefield, by Teresa Roberts Johnson

Mercy’s Robes, by Teresa Roberts Johnson

Firstfruits, by Teresa Roberts Johnson

Moriah’s Song, by Teresa Roberts Johnson

Piecring the Soul (excerpts from three different poems about Mary at the Cross, compiled by Emily Pollis Gibson)

Jesus of the Scars, by Edward Shillito

John Piper:  The Book of Life

John Piper:  Joseph of Arimathea part 1, Joseph of Arimathea part 2

John Piper: Justified (the thief on the cross)

Salvator Mundi: Via Crucis, Denise Levertov

Looking at Stars, Jane Kenyon

Friday’s Child, WH Auden

The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot (East Coker, IV)

A poem in German with translation:  Uber den gekreutzigten JESUS, by Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (On the crucified Jesus).  An alternate translation is here.

The Dream of the Rood (from the 7th century)

Latayne C. Scott:  3 Holy Week Poems

The Cross, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (translated from Spanish)

The Tree of Life, by Robert Buchanan

Amy Carmichael, A Carol  [Also known as “Two Bethlehems, Three Crosses”]

Amy Carmichael:  Lest We Forget

Amy Carmichael:  Love’s Eternal Wonder

Amy Carmichael: Toward Jerusalem

Amy Carmichael:  The Sign

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See also our compilation of poems for Holy Week,

as well as our more general post with poems for Lent and links to sites featuring liturgically-themed poetry.