Poems for Holy Week

The poems in each section below are in somewhat random order.  I’ll probably work to reorganize them soon.  But in the meantime, here’s a good list of poesm for Holy Week (generally), Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday.  I’m posting a separate compilation of poems for Good Friday.

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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1. General poems on Holy Week & Christ’s Passion

• The Passion, by George Herbert
• V. What the Thunder said by TS Eliot (from The Waste Land)
• Judas, Peter, by Luci Shaw
• Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa, by Oscar Wilde
• Barnfloor and Winepress, by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• I saw the Sun at Midnight, by Joseph Mary Plunkett
• Lenten Communion by Katharine Tynan
• In the Street, by Winifred M Letts
•  Hymn of Kassiani (9th Century – about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet)
• Emily Polis Gibson:  The Flooded Path
• Emily Polis Gibson:  Love to the Loveless
• Emily Polis Gibson: Fiery and Sweet
• Emily Polis Gibson:  Barnstormed
• Teresa Roberts Johnson:  The Son Restored
• Teresa Roberts Johnson:  Heaven Scent
• Teresa Roberts Johnson:  Unto the Hills
• Teresa Roberts Johnson:  Pillar of Cloud
• Sonnets of the Cross, by Thomas S Jones Jr. (from Project Canterbury)  See Jerusalem (23)
• The Altar; or Meditations in Verse on the Great Christian Sacrifice, By Isaac Williams. (Project Canterbury)

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2. Palm Sunday:

• The Donkey, by GK Chesterton
• John Keble:  Palm Sunday
• Teresa Roberts Johnson:  The Witness
• Of the Donkey, by Mary Oliver
• Crying Out Loud, by Emily Polis Gibson

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 3. Maundy Thursday:

• The Last Supper, by Ranier Maria Rilke
• John Keble: Maundy Thurdsay
• Christ’s bloody sweat by Robert Southwell.
• Barnfloor and Winepress, by Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Bitter Herbs, by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• Leonard Cohen:  If it be your will.
• An Excerpt from Milton’s Paradise Lost for Maundy Thursday
• A Sonnet of Sweat, by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• Something for the Feast, by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• Laver of Life, by Teresa Roberts Johnson
• Gethsemane, by Mary Oliver
• The Feet of Judas, by George Marion McClellan (h/t this Barnstorming post)
• The Morsel, by Shelley A. Soceka
• Amy Carmichael:  The Fellowship of His Sufferings (Under the Olive Trees)

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 4. Good Friday: 

See our separate compilation of Good Friday poems, here.

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5. Holy Saturday:

• Sepulchre, by George Herbert
• John Keble:  Easter Eve
• Emily Polis Gibson:  Be Still and Wait
• Emily Polis Gibson: Great Gaps
• Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Truth of Holy Saturday: Only the wound is there
• Upon our Saviour’s Tomb, wherein never man was laid.
• Easter Night, Alice Meynell
• We Simply Have to Wait, John Harrell
• The Stones (excerpt), by Wendell Barry
• A Fitting Silence, Emily Polis Gibson

 

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See also our compilation of poems for Good Friday, as well as our more general post with poems for Lent and links to sites featuring liturgically-themed poetry.